The flight from Mumbai to Zurich only reached Vienna because it ran out of supplies
Instead of flying to Zurich, a Swiss Airbus A330 had to land early. Reason: lack of sufficient fuel.
An Airbus of this type was forced to cancel its flight to Zurich on Thursday.
Photo: Urs Judas
A Swiss plane coming from Mumbai was supposed to land in Zurich at 6:15 am on Friday. I set off half an hour late in the Indian capital and thus arrived almost on time. But instead of heading to Zurich, the A330 began landing at 5:07 a.m., according to tracking service data. Flightradar24.com Displays. At 5:35 a.m., the plane with registration number HB-JHC landed in Vienna and headed straight to the gate.
Swiss flight LX155 was experiencing severe headwinds. So the fuel ran out and the trip ended prematurely.
Screenshot: Flightradar24
The reason for unscheduled downtime is surprising. “Flight LX155 had to stop in Vienna to refuel,” press spokeswoman Silvia Exer-Kohne said when asked by the editorial team. The refueling process in Mumbai was regular and carried out according to the usual flight planning. “However, wind conditions during the flight were unfortunately much worse than expected.” This means: a very strong headwind. “As a result, fuel consumption was higher than planned.”
“Extremely rare”
According to Switzerland, such large deviations between expectations and reality are extremely rare. “We deeply regret the inconvenience this has caused passengers.” There were 212 passengers on board. For her, the first step was to wait. The next flight was originally scheduled for 6:45 a.m., then the start time was pushed back to 7:30 a.m., then to 7:44 a.m. and finally to 2:45 p.m.
This long wait may seem surprising, but there is a reason. First of all, the new crew had to go to Vienna. Because there is a service limit for the cabin crew. If this is exceeded, new personnel must take over the flight.
According to Elixer-Con, “The best solution was sought for passengers so that they could reach their planned final destination as quickly as possible, for example if they were flying to a destination other than Zurich.” Most of the passengers were waiting for their plane to continue its journey.
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