Posted on 08/05/2018 7:40:00 AM PDT by EdnaMode
All 20 passengers and crew onboard a vintage plane that crashed in the Swiss Alps on Saturday were killed, police have confirmed.
The authorities also confirmed that the aircraft involved was a JU-52 HB-HOT aircraft, which was flying from Locarno, near Switzerland’s southern border, to the airline’s base in Dübendorf, a suburb of Zurich.
Local media and aviation sites had earlier reported that the plane, which seated 17 passengers along with two pilots and a flight attendant, was fully booked.
“The JU-Air team is deeply saddened and is thinking of the passengers, the crew and families and friends of the victims,” JU-Air said on its website on Sunday.
The airline was established in 1982 and offers sightseeing, charter and adventure flights with its three mid-century Junkers Ju-52 aircraft, which were decommissioned by the Swiss air force and are known affectionately as Auntie Ju planes.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Good idea to use common sense and obey the laws of physics. Flying over the Alps in an aircraft manufactured in 1939 is inherently dangerous.
I would think twice before riding in a plane named “junker.”
But... yes, terrible thing to have happen.
80 yrs old,
Swiss Alps,
Check.
JU 52. Adolf’s favorite mode of transportation
Looks a lot like a low wing Ford Tri Motor.
6
Old airplanes are a hoot.
Years ago, wife and I flew from Huatulco to Oaxaca in a spotless DC-3 operated by “Air Liberdad.” The airplane flew along at about 90 mph, between the southern Mexican mountains.
We were the only Gringos on board.
There is a link - from wiki -
The Ford Trimotor was a development of previous designs by William Bushnell Stout, using structural principles copied from the work of Professor Hugo Junkers, the noted German all-metal aircraft design pioneer, and adapted to an airframe very similar to the single engine Fokker F.VII - even using the same airfoil cross section at the wing root.
But the Ford Tri-Motor flew 4 years before the Ju 52.
The link is the evolution of stressed skins for aircraft construction that replace the woo/steel frames and canvas techniques of the time.
I’ve also flown many places in Mexico and NM and Texas on DC-3’s.
I can’t recall the name of the Mexican airline but in NM and Texas it was Trans Texas Airlines.
One time we were waiting for a flight and my Dad was chatting with the pilot and found out they had both flown over the “Hump” in the CBI theater of war.
“Tante Ju” was generally considered a rugged, reliable and safe aircraft to operate back in the day.
I sat on the right side overlooking the wing and honking big motor. I noticed that every few minutes, a drop of oil would appear from under a rivited cover, only to be blow away as we flew along.
I figured, as long as the drips continued, we’d be OK.
Iron Annie.
Guys that few the hump said they were “following a highway of aluminum” so many planes were lost flying the hump.
Lol Good story.
Yep, pretty scary. My Dad mentioned that.
Somewhere on youtube there’s a video about a guy who searches the Hump for crashed planes and retrieves crew bone fragments and dog tags.
He’s found a few so far.
Hola !
They were dead before the crash? Must have been a depressurization thing.
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