Fire department operation at Zurich Airport United plane aborts take-off at 264 km/h - passengers evacuated
A United Airlines plane on its way to Chicago was stopped and evacuated on the runway at Zurich Airport on Tuesday morning. The cause remains unclear for the time being.
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- There was a firefighting operation at Zurich Airport, reports "20 Minuten".
- United flight UA 12 to Chicago was evacuated, although the flight was due to take off at 9.44 am.
- The plane was stuck on the runway for a long time with three burst tires.
- The exact cause of the operation is unclear. According to the police, it was not a police incident.
The fire department was deployed on a large scale at Zurich Airport this morning: "20 Minuten" footage showed emergency vehicles surrounding the United aircraft UA 12, which was due to take off for Chicago at 9.44 am. According to "20 Minuten", the passengers were taken out of the plane by the fire department.
According to data from the live tracking service Flightradar24.com, the plane accelerated to 264 km/h on the runway before braking sharply and aborting take-off.
The reason for the aborted take-off is unclear. The aircraft remained on the runway for some time afterwards with three punctured tires.
Zurich Protection & Rescue had to be called out to remove the aircraft. According to "20 Minuten", Schutz & Rettung was unable to confirm whether the damaged tires led to the aborted take-off. Burst tires are not unusual after an aborted take-off at high speed, writes the Tages-Anzeiger.
The Zurich cantonal police told "20 Minuten" that the aborted take-off was not due to a police operation. The airport confirmed the evacuation, but gave no information on the reason for the aborted take-off.