To divide
Panic on board a Swiss plane coming from Mallorca. (Symbolic photo) © Andreas Haas/imago
Strong turbulence scares passengers on the flight from Mallorca to Zurich. The Swiss airline apologizes.
Zurich – Passengers will not soon forget this flight with Swiss Air. When on Thursday more than 100,000 lightning strikes and gusts exceeding 100 km/h hit Switzerland, the plane from Mallorca (Spain) approached from Zurich (Switzerland). The flight had already been delayed by 20 minutes due to storms in Zurich.
A reader-reporter from the Swiss portal blick.ch sat on this plane and later reported minutes of anxiety and panic on board. “It was opaque outside and the plane sank,” he says. Passengers apparently screamed and one young woman even hyperventilated.
Panic on board flight to Mallorca during storm turbulence: “Everyone just wanted to get off the plane”
The turbulence reportedly lasted ten minutes, but the landing was smooth. The entire plane applauded, the reader reports and speaks of relieved passengers. “Everyone just wanted to get off the plane.”
What the frequent flyer noticed on the Mallorca-Zurich route was that the plane did not fly over France as usual, but over Italy. As Swiss later explained, the idea was to fly around an active storm cell. “The safety of everyone on board is always the highest priority,” explained media spokesman Michael Pelzer on blick.ch. Swiss is a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. There was also an incident recently with the German flagship. Suddenly, the Lufthansa crew had to declare an air emergency.
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Swiss airline apologizes after Mallorca-Zurich flight
According to blick.ch, he apologized to the shaken passengers on behalf of the airline: “We are very sorry that there apparently were some violent reactions to this flight. We can fully understand that weather like this can make you feel uncomfortable.”
However, Pelzer also made it clear that the flight and landing could be carried out normally. According to the media spokesperson, the planes could withstand “much greater stresses” than the storms in and around Zurich.
The reporter-reader’s girlfriend planned to return to Mallorca next week. However, after the events, she probably reconsiders. It is certainly not encouraging that Mallorca airport was completely evacuated a few days ago because a passenger threatened to use explosives.
Swiss Air recently made headlines because the airline refused to allow a bride to fly. Due to bad weather conditions, an Easyjet aircraft was unable to take off as planned. Some passengers were asked to leave the plane.