Swiss Air plane to Zurich shaken by turbulence

Swiss Air
Storm turbulence causes panic on the plane to Zurich

A Swiss Air machine encountered severe turbulence on approach to land due to a thunderstorm. The airline apologized for the inconvenience.

With a Swiss AirFlight from Palma de Mallorca to Zurich experienced strong turbulence during the landing approach last Thursday. The machine was literally shaken up, several media quoted the report of an eyewitness. Because of a storm in Switzerland, the scheduled flight took off 20 minutes later. A severe weather warning was in effect for parts of Switzerland that day. Strong gusts of up to 100 km/h swept across the country and made the flight difficult.

Swiss Air passengers panicked

In order to fly around the active thunderstorm cell, the flight was diverted, said Swiss media spokesman Michael Pelzer. According to the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”, the machine did not fly over Italy as usual, but over France. However, the plane was unable to avoid the turbulence. The machine shook for about ten minutes. “There was nothing to see outside and the plane dropped,” the “Focus” quoted a passenger as saying. Panic broke out, several passengers screamed.

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“Everyone just wanted to get out of the plane,” said another passenger. After the hard but safe landing, many were relieved and applauded when the machine touched down on the ground. The airline apologized: “We are very sorry that there were apparently some violent reactions on this flight,” quoted the “Cologne City Gazette“Media spokesman Pelzer. “We can absolutely understand that weather like this can sometimes make you feel uneasy and we would like to apologize to our passengers for this inconvenience.”

However, Swiss Air also emphasized that such turbulence is nothing out of the ordinary and usually does not pose an immediate safety risk. The aircraft are designed for greater loads.

Sources: “Focus“, “Cologne City Gazette“

See in the gallery: The series of violent thunderstorms over southern Germany does not stop. This time hit particularly hard: the Franconian metropolis of Nuremberg. Cellars and streets were full there, and rail traffic was impaired.