A CABIN crew member has died after a plane was forced to make an emergency landing.
Thick plumes of smoke filled the jet as it experienced an engine problem while flying from Bucharest, Romania, to Zurich, Switzerland.
GettyThe jet made an emergency lading. Stock pic[/caption]
The Airbus A220-300 jet, with 74 passengers and five crew on board, quickly made an unscheduled landing in Graz, Austria on December 23.
Passengers and crew were evacuated off the jet, with 12 treated at the scene.
One worker was airlifted to hospital and taken into intensive care.
A second stricken cabin crew member was also taken to hospital.
One of the cabin crew members has now died a week on.
A Swiss International Air Lines spokesman said: “We must report, with the deepest of sorrow and regret, that our young colleague died in the hospital in Graz on Monday.“
Chief executive Jens Fehlinger added: “We are devastated at our dear colleague’s death.
“Our thoughts are with his family, whose pain we cannot imagine.
“I offer them my heartfelt condolences on behalf of all of us at Swiss.”
Initial investigations suggest a technical defect in one of the engines caused the cabin and cockpit to fill with smoke.
Austrian prosecutors have launched an inquiry into possible negligent bodily injury.
Swiss chief operating officer Oliver Buchhofer added: “This is the saddest of days for us all.
“Losing our colleague and fellow member of our Swiss team leaves me distraught and dismayed.”
He insisted the airline would “with the relevant authorities, to determine the causes involved.”
It comes as investigators in South Korea work to determine the cause of a plane crash that killed 179.
On Sunday, a Jeju Air passenger jet crash landed on the tarmac at Muan International Airport before smashing into a concrete wall.
It exploded in an enormous fireball, killing all but two of the 181 onboard in a devastating catastrophe.