Investigators from the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board have released their findings on the horrific crash of a vintage Junkers Ju 52 tri-motor operating on a commercial passenger-sightseeing flight on August 4, 2018. The plane crashed in high terrain in the Swiss Alps, killing the three crewmembers and 17 passengers, following an encounter with turbulence that caused the plane to stall. The turbulence, investigators found, was entirely normal for the conditions, and the pilots disregarded the risk in making the flight as they did, part of a pattern of reckless behavior, the report found.
It was an accident that never should have happened, but to hear the investigators tell it, it was one that was likely to happen given the pilots’ flying behavior, both that day and previously, and what they indicated was shoddy maintenance on the aircraft.
The plane was operated by Ju Air, one of three Ju 52s the airline had in its fleet. (It has since gone out of business and the new owner has not been able to get operating authorization to resume service.) The airline gave sightseeing flights in the plane, manufactured in 1939.
Investigators ruled that the pilots flew recklessly, “at low altitude with no possibility of an alternative flight path and at an air speed that was dangerously low for the circumstances.” It went on to say that the aircraft was not in an airworthy condition, that its engines had not been properly maintained and that they were not capable of producing rated power, contributing to the stall and the crash.
