Landed on a meadow

AUA picked up stranded passengers from Kazakhstan

On Saturday, AUA came to the rescue of stranded passengers in Kazakhstan (archive image).

(Bild: P. Huber)

A Swiss aircraft made an emergency landing in Kazakhstan on Saturday. It had left the runway and landed in a meadow. Sister company AUA stepped in and sent an aircraft to take the passengers to Vienna.

The plane was scheduled to land there at 10.15 a.m. on Sunday. The Swiss Boeing 777 was on its way from Tokyo to Zurich with 319 passengers. An emergency landing suddenly had to be made in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The reason was a medical emergency of a passenger. He was handed over to the medical staff. The other passengers survived the emergency landing unharmed, it was reported.

Aircraft not immediately operational
After landing at Astana airport, the pilot had to make a 180-degree turn on the runway because the taxiway was closed at the time. In the process, one of the front wheels had slightly hit a meadow. The aircraft was brought back onto the runway after the incident and experts examined it for possible damage.

As it was not immediately operational again, the sister company AUA helped out. It sent an aircraft to take the passengers to Vienna. From there, they were able to travel on to Zurich or their other final destinations. Astana Airport remained closed to all flights for two hours.

Other flights postponed
Due to the missing aircraft, Swiss had to postpone a long-haul flight to Sao Paulo from Saturday evening and Sunday to the following morning. The departure time for another long-haul flight was delayed.