Austria has officially transferred the investigation of flight LX1885 incident, which resulted in the death of a flight attendant, to Switzerland.
The Austrian Ministry of Transport and the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (SUST) confirmed the development in response to a report published Friday by the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger.
According to the Austrian Safety Investigation Board (SUB), the decision to hand over the case was prompted by an internal criminal complaint against unknown individuals within the agency. Subsequent investigations into SUB personnel led the head of the board to recuse the agency from the case and remove the lead investigator to avoid any perception of bias.
Typically, aircraft accidents are investigated by the authorities in the country where they occur. In this instance, that would have been Austria, as the emergency landing took place in Graz on December 23.
The incident involved a Swiss International Air Lines Airbus A220-300 flying from Bucharest, Romania, to Zurich with 74 passengers and five crew members on board. The aircraft was forced to land in Graz after experiencing engine trouble and smoke in the cabin. Several individuals, including crew members, sustained injuries—some of them serious.
A 23-year-old flight attendant later died in hospital from a lack of oxygen, autopsy revealed.
