Swiss International Air Lines Flight 1885
Airbus A220-300 · Cabin smoke due to engine failure caused by previously unknown fault pattern
From Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport (OTP) to Zürich Airport (ZRH)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA25WA079
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Preliminary · SUB preliminary report, 13 Mar 2025
- Event fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 79
- Survivors
- 78
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 16
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Airbus A220-300
- Flight
- LX1885
- Aircraft type
- Airbus A220
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- HB-JCD
- Operator
- Swiss International Air Lines
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Route
- From Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport (OTP)To Zürich Airport (ZRH)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Fire/smoke (non-impact)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Swiss International Air Lines Flight 1885 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Swiss International Air Lines from Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport in Bucharest, Romania, to Zurich Airport in Zurich, Switzerland. On 23 December 2024, the Airbus A220 experienced an engine failure at FL400 (40000 feet), leading to smoke entering the cabin. An emergency landing was performed at Graz Airport, Austria, and all 79 occupants were evacuated via emergency slides. One crew member was airlifted to a hospital in Graz and died on 30 December 2024, a week after the accident. This was the first fatal accident involving the Airbus A220 and Swiss International Air Lines.
Accident
The aircraft had an engine failure at FL400 (40000 ft) en route to Zurich, which led to smoke entering the cabin. The flight was forced to divert to Graz Airport. At 16:33 UTC, the flight emergency landed at Graz, and all 79 passengers and crew members were evacuated using the emergency slides. Twelve passengers and five crew members received medical attention. Two cabin crew members were still in the hospital by 27 December, and on 30 December, a week after the accident, the airline announced that one of the crew members had died.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
An engine failure due to a previously unknown fault pattern was flagged during initial investigations. The left engine's Front Drive Gear System as well as two bearings were found damaged. The crew's protective breathing equipment (PBE) was also under investigation. Because of handling and performance issues Swiss had started a replacement programme in October 2023 which was expected to finish in the first quarter of 2025.
The investigation faces scrutiny over the handling of the case by the Austrian Federal Safety Investigation Authority (SUB). Key concerns include a seven-day delay in notifying international bodies of the incident as an "accident," despite the subsequent death of a crew member from oxygen deprivation, potentially linked to faulty breathing equipment (PBE).
A criminal complaint, filed on behalf of ten passengers of a previous, unrelated Austrian Airlines flight that encountered severe hail, alleges a pattern of behavior from the SUB. This filing claimed the SUB initially attempted to classify the Swiss incident as a minor "disturbance". Further allegations claimed improper handling of the potentially faulty PBE masks. The masks were reportedly transported in an "unidentified garbage bag" by airport staff at the SUB investigator's request and left unattended, raising concerns about evidence preservation. The Graz prosecutor's office is investigating potential charges of involuntary manslaughter and bodily harm related to the Swiss incident. The aforementioned complaint also alleged that the SUB had a history of downplaying incidents, citing the Austrian Airlines case where flight recorder data was allegedly not secured following a hailstorm encounter. The SUB denied the claims.
On 17 March 2025, the Written Preliminary Report has been published by the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Swiss International Air Lines Flight 1885” (revision 1361189462, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Swiss International Air Lines Flight 1885
- Revision
- 1361189462 · 2026-06-26 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q131608003
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA25WA079
- Event ID
- 20241230199487
- Case number
- DCA25WA079
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Swiss International Air Lines Flight 1885" (page 78768019, revision 1361189462); merged with NTSB case DCA25WA079 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date; matches the Sicherheitsuntersuchungsstelle des Bundes (SUB), Federal Safety Investigation Authority - Civil Aviation Department, Austria (investigation later transferred to the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board, SUST/STSB) preliminary report
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA25WA079
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities; matches the Sicherheitsuntersuchungsstelle des Bundes (SUB), Federal Safety Investigation Authority - Civil Aviation Department, Austria (investigation later transferred to the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board, SUST/STSB) preliminary report
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Swiss International Air Lines Flight 1885" and NTSB case DCA25WA079, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.
- Checked against the Sicherheitsuntersuchungsstelle des Bundes (SUB), Federal Safety Investigation Authority - Civil Aviation Department, Austria (investigation later transferred to the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board, SUST/STSB) preliminary report (2025-03-13) on 2026-09-18. The report states the same date, fatalities, departure and destination. Not checked: place, crash-site coordinates, flight number, aircraft type, registration, operator, damage, type of operation and ground fatalities.