Evacuation at night: The Swiss A330 in Delhi last Sunday after the aborted take-off.Image: x
The airline had to evacuate 228 passengers from a plane on Sunday. Not everything went ideally. Operations manager Oliver Buchhofer comments. And it reveals how long the flight fuel will last.
April 29, 2026, 6:25 p.mApril 29, 2026, 6:25 p.m
Last Sunday, the Swiss crew had to abort the takeoff of their Airbus aircraft from Delhi, India, due to an engine problem. 228 passengers and four small children were then evacuated as a precaution. The incident occurred shortly after 1 a.m. Four people were injured and taken to hospital. Swiss operations manager Oliver Buchhofer (49) comments – and also talks about the kerosene shortage in the summer.
You are a pilot for Swiss yourself. Have you ever had to evacuate?
Oliver Buchhofer: Never in real use. But I have already practiced a lot of evacuations in the simulator. So I can understand very well what goes through your head as a pilot in such a case.
How well can you prepare for a real emergency situation in a simulator?
The processes can be trained very well, as can the questions that arise in the situation. What is the condition of the aircraft? Where can I get information? But of course, the reality is something different.
To what extent?
In the simulator you know relatively quickly whether there is smoke or fire and whether all the landing gear is functional. But in this case it was very dark at night, there were a lot of people standing around the plane and communication was limited. There were no contact persons and the information at that moment was incomplete or even contradictory. You can’t practice something like that. The situation was therefore very demanding.
After the incident, Swiss came to the conclusion that there was still a need for information on the subject of hand luggage. How many passengers took this with them during the evacuation when they should have left it on board?
We will investigate this question. Overall, from our perspective, the evacuation went very well. But the issue of hand luggage during aircraft evacuations has been a concern for the industry for a long time. To a certain extent, it is understandable that you want to take your backpack or laptop bag with you because there are important, personal things in there.
But?
If everyone wants to collect their personal belongings first, the evacuation won’t work. This is valuable time that is wasted. In such cases, every second can mean the difference between life and death.
Oliver Buchhofer is the Swiss operations manager and also works for them as a pilot.Image: keystone
On the Aeroflot flight on May 5, 2019, 41 of the 78 passengers died. Video footage suggested the evacuation was delayed as passengers retrieved their carry-on luggage from the rack.
Exactly. At the back of the flight, people were on fire, and at the front, passengers were worried about their rolling suitcases. This is tragic and simply shouldn’t happen. But there are also good examples, like two years ago in Tokyo, when 379 people were able to get off the plane safely within a short period of time despite the fire.
There were passengers in Delhi who filmed the evacuation with their smartphones, even while using the slide.
This video material helps us with the investigations and analysis of the evacuation. But filming is still taboo. I simply cannot understand this behavior. You are in an extraordinary emergency situation. Again: It’s a matter of life and death and the first thing you do is pull out your cell phone. You would need your hands to protect or support yourself. I wish people would better understand the seriousness of the situation.
Is this the social influencer effect?
That’s probably the case, you see it in other incidents too. Sure, in retrospect you can say that in this case there was less time pressure because there was no fire. But you don’t know that at the time. And ultimately there is no “evacuation light”. The goal is always the same: get everyone on board safely off the plane as quickly as possible. And these are not playground slides that are used.
There is a risk of injury even during evacuation.
Exactly, that’s what happened in this case. These slides are very steep, the emergency exit is 5 to 6 meters above the ground. So you quickly develop a high speed and not all passengers are physically fit. You can injure your wrist or foot, for example downstairs when you arrive. That’s why the crew or other passengers help them as much as possible.
The danger on the ground has not yet been averted. In the Asiana accident at San Francisco Airport in 2013, a passenger who had already been evacuated died because she was run over by an ambulance in the commotion.
You also have to be aware of these risks. There is the so-called “crowd control” procedure for this. Crew members on the ground ensure that the passengers move as far away from the aircraft as possible and that they do not spread out. The co-pilot leaves the aircraft first, the captain – as with ships – last after checking that everyone is off board. But that’s not always easy.
For what reason?
People react completely differently in stressful situations. Some sit apathetically. Others want to jump out before the slides are installed. This requires a disciplined approach from the crew. This can come across as aggressive. But first and foremost, they are clear, loud instructions. It’s about maintaining control of the situation and getting the passengers to safety.
Four people were injured during the evacuation in Delhi.Image: YouTube/Indian Express
The passengers left the plane in Delhi not only via slides, but also via stairs. Is that normal?
No, this was a deviation from the standard process. There was a pregnant woman on board and she did not want to use the slide due to health concerns. Many passengers had already been evacuated. The crew evaluated the situation and concluded that stairs could be used. That was a situational decision. If there had been a fire on the plane, this would not have been possible.
Swiss recently launched a new safety video. But it looks much more like a spa or wellness advertising clip. The glossy scenes, some of which were filmed in the mountains, are extremely abstract and create no sense of urgency at all. Are any adjustments planned?
There are different forms of such security videos. Some are completely sober, others are more dissolute. Because when you show a video so often, it’s understandable that airlines also use it to get their image across. I think that in our video the safety information is clear and sufficiently focused. But if the studies show that there is room for improvement, we will of course take these findings into account. Then adjustments would not be ruled out.
Your crew increasingly undergoes safety training in virtual space with virtual reality glasses. Isn’t that missing the tactile feeling that is important in an emergency situation?
That is definitely the case. But I wouldn’t rule out virtual reality completely. Because you can certainly train certain processes. I see it as a supplement to normal training.
Are there any initial findings about the cause of the engine problem?
No. Such investigations are complex and take time. What is clear is that there was a malfunction during startup. Our technical team will now take a closer look at it. In addition, the Indian authorities have launched an official investigation, as has the engine manufacturer Rolls Royce. We communicate closely with them.
You are now missing another aircraft after having to ground all nine A220s due to engine problems. Does that hurt, or will many Swiss flights soon have to be canceled anyway given the kerosene shortage?
We still have no plans to cancel flights. At the moment we can continue to carry out the full program – despite a possible kerosene shortage and this missing aircraft. It helps us that we are in the process of introducing the A350 aircraft into the fleet and we can use our A340 fleet for a little longer, which gives us flexibility. And it could be days, if not weeks, before the plane in Delhi is ready to fly again. The restoration takes a lot of time.
However, the Strait of Hormuz is still blocked. Many people are worried about what will happen to flights during the summer holidays and whether airlines might suddenly run out of jet fuel.
The topic is of course high on the priority list for us and the entire Lufthansa Group. We are constantly monitoring the kerosene situation. We have enough kerosene for the next 4 to 6 weeks – that’s about as far in advance as we can assess the situation.
And then?
We cannot give a 100 percent guarantee for months beyond that. We are currently operating on sight. We have therefore developed various measures internally in order to be able to react to different scenarios. We are most likely to expect bottlenecks in Africa or Asia. We could then react there, for example, with intermediate stops to refuel the aircraft. (aargauerzeitung.ch)