Swiss Flight Attendant Dies Week After Emergency Landing Due To Smoke

Zurich: A flight attendant aboard a Swiss aircraft that made an emergency landing in Austria due to smoke in the cabin has died, the airline said Tuesday. The flight from Bucharest to Zurich on December 23 diverted to Graz after engine problems and smoke filled the cockpit and the cabin, Swiss said in a statement.

It said the attendant died Monday in intensive care in the hospital in Graz. The attendant was one of two crew members who were hospitalised. All 74 passengers aboard the Airbus A220-300 were evacuated after flight LX1885 landed safely, Swiss said.

“We are devastated at our dear colleague's death,” Swiss CEO 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.