Swiss Alps plane crash leaves all 20 passengers and crew dead

The Guardian ^ | August 5, 2018

[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.

[Tallguy]

The Lord’s work.

[Tallguy]

Planes of that era were not pressurized. The B-29 and a handful of recon aircraft from late-WW2 were the first examples of pressurized military aircraft. The JU-52 was a very crude aircraft. Corrugated skin like you find on your shed roof. A tri-motor design because 2 engines weren’t reliable or produce enough thrust to move the aircraft and it’s cargo. I’d have to check, but I rather doubt that the engines were even supercharged for high-altitude flying (though the Swiss may have re-engined it on account of the Alps).

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[Hatteras]

Many moons ago I flew from a small airfield in Eleuthera Bahamas to Miami in a DC-3. Mackey Airlines. Fun puddle jumper...

[laplata]

That brings back memories. At 15 or 16 we’d be served Bohemia or Tecate on Mexicana.

Salud!

[PUGACHEV]

I once flew between two islands in the Caribbean on an ancient Air Caribe Tupolev or Antinov something or other. The thing looked and smelled like a museum piece and had as many coats of paint on it as an old window sill. The pilot greeted us with the reassuring advice that should we crash, no one was likely to get hurt, as the plane wouldn’t hit the ground too hard because it didn’t move very fast in any direction.

[laplata]

Lol. That was an experience. All those coats of paint probably weighed as much as a couple of people.

[Bonemaker]

Don’t look like original engines.

[Charles Martel]

This was the plane that was used in "Where Eagles Dare".

[MCF]

The JU-52 was outdated compared to the C-46 & C-47

[rlmorel]

My wife and I were down on Cape Cod last fall visiting one of her friends, and I heard aircraft engines.

Being a former jet mechanic, my ears perked up, because it wasn't just an aircraft engine, it was a RADIAL engine, and...more than one!

I looked up to see this cross the sky wheels down...

So, when we left, I had my eyes peeled, and there in a huge grass field, just sitting there with nobody around, no buildings, people, nothing, as the sun went down, was this:

I walked around them, and resisted the urge to look inside (Hatch was open and door down!). I wouldn't do anything like that, it was someone elses property, but it did cross my mind!

Apparently, they sell rides in them!

[rlmorel]

Not a pressurized plane unless they modified it in some weird way.

[laplata]

That’s neat. I’d love to climb aboard one again. I would have stayed outside, too.

I’d say those two planes probably saw service in WW II. So many were made that there was a huge surplus after the war.

Thanks for sharing that.

[rlmorel]

You bet. I heard they had some here with the Provincetown-Boston Airline that had some DC-3s re-engined with turboprop planes, but I have never seen them. Holy smokes, THAT would be one rugged plane!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I took a Spanish/Mexican customs summer course at the Tech in Monterrey back in 1966. After class on Friday, us gringos would adjourn to the El Presidente Lounge for una hambergesa e papasfreetas. Plus several cervesas...
(I know my Spanish is rusty.)

[laplata]

That’s a coincidence because I was going to school in Monterrey in 1966.

Was El Presidente Lounge in one of the hotels downtown? I don’t remember the names of the Hotels but do remember going to Sanborns to buy American magazines.

[Mears]

My very first flight,EVER,was in one of those——1955.

Boston to Edgartown—Eastern Airlines.

.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

It was just off the town square in Monterrey. I think every Mexican city has a “Presidente” hotel or bar.

We stayed at the Presidente Hotel in Oaxaca.

Gas coming out of the shower floor drain made my wife sick so we cut that trip short. I remember the airport had a terminal building faced with onyx. It had a thatched roof which was interesting. Everyone in Oaxaca was 5 feet tall and brown. A police woman in uniform directed four way traffic from a raised platform...

[rlmorel]

Ha! Very cool-now you have a picture of a DC-3 painted in Eastern Airlines livery!

[laplata]

I’m sure I was in that hotel.

The only hotel name I remember was the
Hotel Anfa in Mexico City.

Thanks for sharing and bringing back memories.