Situation underestimated?

End of investigation into AUA hail flight “not foreseeable”

Nachrichten
17.03.2025 14:17

More than nine months after an Austrian Airlines (AUA) aircraft was caught in a storm and damaged by hail, there is no end in sight to the investigation. The Korneuburg public prosecutor's office is investigating the allegation of negligent endangerment of the public.

According to authority spokeswoman Gudrun Bischof, the investigations are "very extensive" and an end to the investigation is "not in sight". In the meantime, further statements of facts have been received by the Vienna prosecuting authority. In particular, it is being investigated whether AUA failed to provide pilots with training on how the weather radar works.

AUA rejects accusations
The suspicion is based on information that an expert is said to have received from a pilot - AUA rejects the accusations. The airline emphasizes that significantly more training is carried out than required by law. According to AUA, there are no gaps in the education and training of pilots.

The reason for the investigation was an AUA Airbus A320 on June 9, 2024 on its way from Palam de Mallorca to Vienna. At the time, it was caught in a thunderstorm cell and experienced severe turbulence. The emergency call "Mayday" was initially made. However, the plane landed safely at Vienna-Schwechat Airport and no passengers were injured. However, the aircraft was damaged.

Thunderstorm cell "not visible" to pilots
According to Austro Control, the storm was known. This raised the question of whether the pilots had underestimated the situation. In addition to an internal investigation, AUA asked the Federal Safety Investigation Board (SUB) for an external audit. According to AUA, the thunderstorm cell was not visible to the cockpit crew on the weather radar. Austro Control was unable to establish any violation of regulatory requirements with regard to the training of the pilots.

Charges filed on suspicion of abuse of authority
Meanwhile, the Vienna public prosecutor's office has received a complaint of suspected abuse of authority against the head of the investigation unit (SUB) and three AUA safety officers, as confirmed by Nina Bussek, spokeswoman for the authorities, in response to a statement of facts submitted by a lawyer.

However, Bussek dismissed recent media reports which spoke of an investigation into abuse of office and favoritism. "There is currently no investigation. It is being examined whether there is sufficient initial suspicion and whether investigations should be initiated," explained Bussek.

This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.

Loading...
00:00 / 00:00
Abspielen
Schließen
Aufklappen
Loading...
Vorige 10 Sekunden
Zum Vorigen Wechseln
Abspielen
Zum Nächsten Wechseln
Nächste 10 Sekunden
00:00
00:00
1.0x Geschwindigkeit
Loading
Kommentare
Eingeloggt als 
Nicht der richtige User? Logout

Willkommen in unserer Community! Eingehende Beiträge werden geprüft und anschließend veröffentlicht. Bitte achten Sie auf Einhaltung unserer Netiquette und AGB. Für ausführliche Diskussionen steht Ihnen ebenso das krone.at-Forum zur Verfügung. Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.

User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.

Kostenlose Spiele
Vorteilswelt