A SWISS Airbus A330 operating a flight to Mumbai made a u-turn back to Zurich today with an issue onboard the aircraft.
Information is limited surrounding the incident at hand, but below is what we know on this so far.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
SWISS Flight LX154 – Zurich to Mumbai…
SWISS flight LX154, which made the u-turn, is a routine scheduled flight between Zurich and Mumbai.
Furthermore, the aircraft involved in the incident was HB-JHC.
As per data from Planespotters.net, HB-JHC is a 17 year old Airbus A330-300 that was delivered to the airline back in July 2009.
Of the A330-300 variant, SWISS has 14 of them in their fleet, of which all of them are in active service, with an average age of 15.8 years.
As well as the A330-300, the Zurich-based carrier has the following other aircraft in their mainline fleet:
- 28 Airbus A220s.
- 17 Airbus A320s.
- 13 Airbus A321s.
- 4 Airbus A340s.
- 2 Airbus A350s.
- 12 Boeing 777s.
In total, the airline has 90 aircraft in their fleet, of which 81 are in active service, and nine are parked, with an average fleet age of 11.3 years.
SWISS flight LX154, which made the u-turn, departed Zurich at 1045 local time this morning and headed out towards Mumbai.
Everything was normal in the flight until it reached the city of Bucharest.
The aircraft made a u-turn and proceeded to head back to it’s base of Zurich.
After around five hours in the air, the aircraft made a landing without further incident, and was met by emergency response vehicles.
What Was The Reason for the U-Turn?
The reason for the u-turn by SWISS flight LX154 Zurich-Mumbai was apparantly due to an issue with one of the tyres on the landing gear.
It isn’t exactly clear what the nature of the issue with the tyre is, whether it has come off of the aircraft, or is damaged.
What we do know is that HB-JHC will be grounded pending inspections and checks by maintenance crews.
As soon as we have more information pertinent to the incident at hand, then we will update you accordingly.
UPDATE #1 @ 1719 UK time – The Aviation Herald reports that there was tyre damage on departure, as confirmed by earlier social media posts.
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