Flight attendant dies a week after emergency landing due to smoke filling cabin
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A flight attendant has tragically died one week after an aircraft was forced into an emergency landing due to smoke filling the cabin. Swiss International Air Lines confirmed on Tuesday that the flight attendant had died after the flight from Bucharest to Zurich on December 23 was diverted to Graz in Austria. The plane had encountered engine problems, with smoke filling the cockpit and cabin.
The airline said the attendant died Monday in intensive care at a hospital in Graz. He was one of two crew members who were hospitalised after the incident. Swiss said all 74 passengers aboard the Airbus A220-300 were evacuated after the plane landed safely.
"We are devastated at our dear colleague's death," Swiss Chief Executive Officer Jens Fehlinger said in the statement. "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.".
Swiss is a subsidiary of German airline Lufthansa. The public prosecutor's office in Graz has ordered a forensic examination of the attendant's body, Austria's APA news agency reported. It has also appointed an aviation expert and initiated an investigation into the cause of the accident.
Following the incident, Swiss said it was also conducting an internal examination. "We want to thoroughly clarify the causes of the smoke and the effects on passengers and crew," the airline wrote on Thursday. "The focus is on the mechanical parts of the aircraft, such as the engine, but also on the use of protective equipment for the cabin crew, known as Protective Breathing Equipment.".
