A SWISS International Air Lines Airbus A330 flying from Zurich to New York JFK with 208 passengers on board made an emergency landing at Bangor Airport in Maine on Monday afternoon after smoke started to fill the forward section of Business Class of the 14-year-old aircraft.
Flight LX-16 departed Zurich at around 10:30 am on July 27 for the eight-hour transatlantic flight to New York JFK. The plane was around six and a half hours into the flight, cruising at an altitude of 32,000 feet, close to Nova Scotia, when the pilots reported an emergency and requested an immediate diversion.
A spokesperson for the Zurich-based airline has confirmed that the reason for the diversion was “smoke of as yet unknown origin in the forward section of Business Class.”
A situation where the crew cannot establish what is causing smoke in the cabin or where it is coming from is one of the most serious types of emergencies that pilots and flight attendants can face. The fear is that a fire could be raging in an inaccessible part of the aircraft, which could lead to a catastrophic ending.
If this kind of situation occurred above the Atlantic Ocean, the pilots would likely have given real consideration to the possibility of a ditching in the water. Thankfully, in this case, the aircraft was just off the coast of North America
Data from Flight Radar 24 indicates the plane descended more than 22,000 feet in just 10 minutes as the pilots veered off their intended course, indicating just how seriously the situation was being taken by the Commander.
Little more than 10 minutes after that, the plane was on the ground at Bangor International Airport. The pilots brought the aircraft to a halt on the runway while airport fire services rushed to its aid, carrying out a thermal and visual inspection of the plane, while flight attendants stood by for a potential evacuation via emergency slides.
As it turned out, there was no fire. And after being stopped on the runway for nearly an hour, the plane was moved to the terminal building.
In a statement, a spokesperson for SWISS confirmed that all passengers and crew were safe and well.
The statement added: “We are aware that a diversion prompted by such circumstances can be unsettling for our passengers and cause uncertainty. This makes it all the more important to us to provide them with the best possible care and support them with their onward travel.”
“Our teams in Switzerland and the United States are currently working at full speed to arrange onward travel for our passengers. We are coordinating closely with Bangor International Airport and are doing everything we can to find a suitable solution for everyone affected as quickly as possible.”
“At this time, we cannot yet say with certainty what may have caused the smoke. In a situation like this, we take no risks – which is why our crews always choose the safest course of action and act out of an abundance of caution. Our experts will now conduct a thorough inspection of the aircraft. We ask for your understanding that, until these investigations have been completed, we will not speculate about possible causes.”
The aircraft involved in Monday’s emergency landing bears the registration HB-JHK. This is the same aircraft that was involved in an emergency evacuation via inflatable slides at Delhi International Airport on April 26, when the pilots performed a rejected takeoff on the runway, after the left-hand Rolls-Royce Trent jet engine suffered a serious failure.
The aircraft was hurtling down the runway at such a high speed at the time of the engine failure that the emergency stop caused the wheels and brakes to emit smoke. An evacuation was ordered during which six people were injured, two of whom suffered broken legs.
The plane returned to service on June 4.
Swiss should not fool around when there’s smoke. Years ago, Swissair, technically a different airline, suffered a catastrophic crash in the same area when a MD-11 on a JFK-GVA flight had an electrical fire resulting in loss of life of the entire crew and passengers.