- A Swiss International Air Lines flight made an emergency landing last month.
- The Airbus A220’s cabin was filled with smoke after encountering an engine problem.
- An autopsy said a flight attendant died due to hypoxic brain damage, Blick reported.
A 23-year-old Swiss International Air Lines flight attendant died due to a “severe lack of oxygen to the brain,” according to an autopsy reported by Blick, Switzerland’s largest newspaper.
It comes after an incident on December 23, when Swiss Flight 1885 encountered engine problems, and the cabin was filled with smoke.
The Airbus A220 was flying from Bucharest, Romania, to Zurich when it made an emergency landing in Graz, Austria.
All 74 passengers and five crew members were evacuated, 17 of whom required medical attention, the airline said.
A week later, Swiss announced that one of the flight’s cabin crew members died in the hospital in Graz.
“We are devastated at our dear colleague’s death,” said CEO Jens Fehlinger. “His loss has left us all in the deepest shock and grief. Our thoughts are with his family, whose pain we cannot imagine.”
Blick reported that the public prosecutor’s office in Graz has launched an investigation into the flight attendant’s death.
A spokesperson told the newspaper that a Friday autopsy found the provisional cause of death to be hypoxic brain damage and cerebral edema, meaning brain swelling.
“The brain was massively damaged by a severe lack of oxygen, and the young flight attendant died of it in the intensive care unit,” the spokesperson told Blick.
“We are also looking into the role played by the respiratory mask that the flight attendant was wearing,” he added.
The Graz public prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider.
Swiss said the investigation’s initial findings point to a problem in one of the plane’s Pratt & Whitney engines.
“We have no indication that the safety of the aircraft type is in question,” it added.
