Last week, a SWISS flight had an emergency landing, leaving a flight attendant hospitalized and in critical condition. There’s now a tragic update, as that flight attendant has passed away. 2024 sure isn’t ending on a good note when it comes to aviation safety…
SWISS A220 diverts to Graz due to smoke onboard
This incident happened on Monday, December 23, 2024, and involves SWISS flight LX1885, scheduled to operate from Bucharest, Romania (OTP), to Zurich, Switzerland (ZRH). The 866-mile flight was operated by a seven-year-old Airbus A220-300 with the registration code HB-JCD, and had 79 people onboard, including 74 passengers and five crew members.
A little over an hour after takeoff, while cruising at 40,000 feet, there were engine problems onboard, and smoke developed in the cockpit and cabin. It’s believed that this issue involved the left hand engine, and that an oil leak caused the smoke, and then there was an uncontained engine failure.
The pilots made the decision to divert to Graz, Austria (GRZ). Within 20 minutes of an emergency having been declared, the plane landed at the airport on runway 34.
The situation was so serious that a helicopter immediately positioned onto the runway, to take a flight attendant to a local hospital, where he went into the intensive care unit. A total of 17 people onboard ended up being hospitalized, including both of the other flight attendants, plus the pilots. Three days later, all three flight attendants were still in the hospital.
The following morning, a replacement aircraft was sent to Graz. The initial aircraft from the incident is still on the ground there, with the engine reportedly being replaced.
SWISS flight attendant passes away in hospital
Unfortunately there’s a really sad update. On Monday, December 30, 2024, SWISS confirmed that the flight attendant who was airlifted has lost his life in the hospital. This was revealed in social media posts, as the airline also greyed out the logo on its various channels.
How terrible. My thoughts are with his family and friends, and may he rest in peace. It’s all the worse to think that this happened right around the holidays, which is a special time for so many families.
It’s believed that the flight attendant who lost his life had collapsed while trying to find the source of smoke, and protect others onboard. In these kinds of situations, it’s normal for crew members to put on protective breathing equipment. It’s not known if that wasn’t functioning properly, or what. Obviously even in a situation where there’s smoke in the cabin, it shouldn’t lead to fatalities.
The airline is now carefully investigating the entire event, including the initial cause of smoke, plus how the flight attendant lost his life.
Here’s what SWISS CEO Jens Fehlinger had to say:
“We are devastated at our dear colleague’s death. His loss has left us all in the deepest shock and grief. Our thoughts are with his family, whose pain we cannot imagine. I offer them my heartfelt condolences on behalf of all of us at SWISS. And we will, of course, be doing everything in our power to help and support them at this extremely difficult time.”
Meanwhile here’s what SWISS COO Oliver Buchhofer had to say:
“This is the saddest of days for us all. Losing our colleague and fellow member of our SWISS team leaves me distraught and dismayed. But we stand with one another at this truly difficult time; and we will be doing our utmost, together with the relevant authorities, to determine the causes involved. We have many questions, and we want them answered. Our special thanks go to the responsible parties in Graz, particularly the local emergency services, who have given our passengers and our crew members such professional help and support.”
Bottom line
A SWISS flight attendant has lost his life, following an emergency landing on a December 23 flight from Bucharest to Zurich. It’s believed that an engine failure caused smoke in the cabin, and that the flight attendant ended up losing consciousness and collapsing. Despite being airlifted to the hospital, he lost his life, passing away several days later. How sad…
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