Hi,

well this is my first trip report, so please, do not hesitate with criticism...

anyway, it all started on a beautiful winter day in Düsseldorf. For once it was very sunny in the Ruhrgebiet area, a glorious, gorgeous day with cristal clear, refreshing air and a hearty, cool wind blowing.

Condtitions were so ideal for photography that I went a little earlier to the airport to shoot some pictures, and I was richly rewarded:





Iberia's retro jet is a true bijou, and a Tupolev 154 stuns me everytime.

LX 1019 DUS-ZRH (well DUS again)
13 JANUARY 2008
Avro RJ 100 HB-IXP
Departure: 14:41
Arrival: 15:40
Seat: 3F
Load: 100 %


Well, the day's perfect start should not apply to the afternoon: soon after taking off on the RJ100 HB-IXP there was a strange noise, well, I cannot describe it sufficiently: the engines sounded kind of differently, less loud maybe, less humming, and then we hit some turbulences. Little did I know and I fell asleep - I easily fall asleep up in the air (for me the last resort of quietness, of heavenly silence, a perfect place to relax). After maybe 20 minutes the captain's voice woke me up: He announced that we were to return to DUS as we were experiencing an engine failure (when looking in cockpit direction the outer engine on the right). Everyone stayed calm on board (even though my seating neighbour, a fine lady, admitted that she was nervous as she sat on a Cessna 20 years earlier when suddenly the propeller stopped propelling, that's what she told me at least and I tried to calm her by telling her about the gliding abilities of today's jets - mentionning the Gimly Glider and the Air Transat A330 getting to the Azores after gliding for hours) and so we went back where we started from, circling over the Ruhrgebiet, for around half an hour and then touched down again on Germany's third busiest airport. I made some pictures while we were circling:









and from X-ray Papa on the ground - with an engine opened:








Then Swiss (and Lufthansa) proved that they do know what they are doing: they managed to avoid chaos - everybody was accommodated on other flights to their destinations in a orderly, professional way - I must say I was impressed.
(This situation, returing due to an engine failure was new to me, however, I experienced two flight cancellations before, both with Air France, and both times it took ages for them to rearrange everything).
For me, it meant only a delay of three hours in the end - as I was booked right on the next LH flight to ZRH, LH 3770, operated by Eurowings on BAe 146-200 D-ACFA. This older Jumbolino has, as opposed to SWISS, a 6-abreast design, making the galley narrow. The seat was comfy, however, and the ride smooth. As soon as we were above the clouds I was napping again...

Well, this incident only helped to strengthen my belief in this airline (and its parent) and I am already looking forward to flying them again...

Cheers

[Edited 2008-01-13 14:23:09]

Hey nice mini report on your drama. Nice to know they were professional getting everyone re booked etc.... At least you had another 3 engines to get you back to DUS !!!

OA260

Thanks for the trip report. It's interesting to hear about an engine failure. I'm almost surprised that they did not continue on the ZRH. DUS-ZRH is less than 300 miles, so after 20 minutes in the air, you'd be well on your way to your destination, unless of course they were holding and diagnosing the problem.

3 engines isn't a disastrous situation, but getting on the ground quickly is always a good idea. The response that BA got after losing an engine and then trying to continue flying LAX-LHR was pretty bad PR.

Good to see that Swiss (or LH ground handling) re-booked the passengers so quickly and professionally - once something goes wrong, it's nice to be in the hands of a quality carrier. I mean, re-booking the local passengers to the next DUS-VIE flight certainly isn't that difficult, but I'm sure there were some worldwide connections involved as a s well.

Quoting Ndebele (Reply 3): Good to see that Swiss (or LH ground handling) re-booked the passengers so quickly and professionally - once something goes wrong, it's nice to be in the hands of a quality carrier.

So true, however I've experienced total chaos and lack of information when it happened to me, I was to fly LX to ZRH ( for a ZRH meet if some remember, which I reched 8 hours late) and the plane went tech.

The staff at BRU was not LX staff, as LX uses I think Aviaprtner for that, so those employees had absolutely no idea about LX or LH operations back then.. Resulting in 2.5 hours worth of rebookin AR8 50% load of people to different flights..

I'm glad you didnt experience it the hard way..

Great report, and for the next time, happy sleep....ahrm, flying time!  

Regards,
LO231

Quoting LO231 (Reply 4): The staff at BRU was not LX staff,

I think a similar situation would pronounce at DUB! The LX crew there (Sky Handling Partner) are clueless. They cant even book J class pax into J seats, but can book Y pax into the middle seat in J, which is always to be kept free! In a situation like this, God only knows where ppl would end up!

Glad to see all were OK, although I too am surprised you guys did not just continue to ZRH, you did have three engines left and ye had to hold for a while. Maybe weather at ZRH was not great?

Brian.

Quoting BrianDromey (Reply 5): I think a similar situation would pronounce at DUB! The LX crew there (Sky Handling Partner) are clueless

I can only confirm that from my own experience. Even if you only show up with the print out of the E-Ticket E-Mail because the Ticket Desk (which in LX's case is kind of hidden at DUB) was not yet open at 9.10 am. They have no clue what to do. So I don't even want to know what happens f they have to rebook a fully loaded Airbus if it goes tech at DUB.

fiatstilojtd

Thanks for your answers.

Now, a day later I think it is rather special what happened to my flight - taking off and returning to the same airport due to a technical problem.

I am also asking myself why we did not continue to ZRH - all in all we spent almost as long in the air as we had gone on to ZRH...

Nevertheless, I am grateful that I made it back with a acceptable delay only - they might have been so well organised as DUS do have a considerable LH operation and is still not too big.


Cheers


PS: HB-IXP was not in service today in and out of ZRH? Does anybody know where it was repaired or ferried to? Thank you.

Nice TR

The pics are really good.

Good that everything went well and that they re booked you all!!




Thank you for sharing

B747forever