An Edelweiss jet had a rather dramatic takeoff from Zurich this weekend, in an incident that’s now reportedly being investigated by the airline.
Edelweiss A340 struggles to climb out of Zurich
This incident happened on Saturday, April 6, 2024, and involves Edelweiss flight WK24 from Zurich (ZRH) to Cancun (CUN). For those not familiar, Edelweiss is the leisure subsidiary of SWISS, operating both short and long haul flights to all kinds of holiday destinations.
This particular flight was operated by a 20-year-old Airbus A340-300 with the registration code HB-JMF. The aircraft was taking off from Zurich’s runway 16 at 1:04PM local time. As you can see in the below video, the aircraft rotated for takeoff and became airborne, but then immediately started sinking back toward the runway.
The aircraft seems to get very close to touching down again near the end of the runway, before finally gaining altitude again.
Following this incident, the aircraft managed to gain altitude, and completed a routine flight to Cancun. Since this incident yesterday, the aircraft has operated its return flight to Zurich.
What happened to this Edelweiss A340?
The Aviation Herald reports that the airline is investigating this incident, in what the company refers to as an “unschöner Start” (with “unschöner” meaning something along the lines of unpleasant/not nice). Now, since this seems to be an airline investigation for now (rather than a government safety board investigation), it’s anyone’s guess if the findings end up being released.
The Aviation Herald suggests that a tailwind gust is being suspected as the cause of this. Planes usually take off into a headwind, so a sudden change in the direction of wind could cause the aircraft to lose airspeed, and therefore also lose lift, especially during a critical phase of flight.
There are some other theories out there. Did the plane have enough airspeed when it lifted off? Were the correct takeoff calculations performed based on the weight of the aircraft?
The A340-300 is known for having among the weakest takeoff performance of any heavy jet. There are some planes where you feel like you’re rocketing off during takeoff, while on the A340-300 you can’t help but sometimes wonder if/when the plane is going to lift off. Many joke that the A340-300 relies on the curvature of the earth to get airborne.
Bottom line
An Edelweiss Airbus A340 had a pretty dramatic takeoff from Zurich on Saturday. The jet rotated and became airborne, but then started losing altitude shortly after takeoff. The plane finally gained altitude again just shortly before the end of the runway, in an incident that makes for quite a sight.
What do you make of this Edelweiss A340 incident in Zurich?
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