Crossair Flight 3597

Crossair Flight 3597

HB-IXM, the Avro RJ100 involved in the ill-fated flight, seen at Zürich Airport three months prior to the disaster
Accident summary
Date	24 November 2001 (2001-11-24)
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain, pilot error, lack of pilot training and crew experience
Site	Bassersdorf, Switzerland 47°27′14″N 8°37′24″E / 47.45389°N 8.62333°E / 47.45389; 8.62333Coordinates: 47°27′14″N 8°37′24″E / 47.45389°N 8.62333°E / 47.45389; 8.62333
Passengers	28
Crew	5
Fatalities	24
Injuries (non-fatal)	9
Survivors	9
Aircraft type	Avro RJ100
Operator	Crossair
Registration	HB-IXM
Flight origin	Berlin Tegel Airport, Germany
Destination	Zürich Airport, Switzerland

Crossair Flight LX 3597 was a scheduled flight from Berlin Tegel Airport, in Germany, to Zürich Airport, in Switzerland. On 24 November 2001, the Crossair Avro RJ100 operating the route, registration HB-IXM, crashed into a wooded range of hills near Bassersdorf and caught fire, killing 24 of the 33 people on board.

The accident aircraft, a British made Avro 146-RJ100, registration HB-IXM, was manufactured in 1996 and recorded a total of over 13,194 hours and 11,518 cycles before the crash. The aircraft was powered by four Lycoming LF507-1F turbofan engines.

The flight departed Berlin Tegel Airport at 21:01 CET with 28 passengers, three flight attendants, and the cockpit crew of Captain Hans Ulrich Lutz (57) and First Officer Stefan Loehrer (25). Lutz was an extremely experienced pilot with more than 19,500 flight hours – approximately 19,300 of which were as pilot in command. Loehrer, in contrast, was inexperienced with just 490 total flight hours.

Swissair, a major shareholder in Crossair, had been grounded about a month before the crash as a result of financial difficulties.

Upon arrival in Zürich about an hour after takeoff, the pilots were cleared for an ILS approach runway 14, but were switched to a VOR/DME approach runway 28 because of a noise law past 10:00PM. There was poor visibility conditions due to low clouds, and the cockpit voice recorder captured the transmission of a previously landing Crossair flight informing the tower that they could not see the runway until 2.2 nautical miles (4.1 km; 2.5 mi) away. At 22:07 CET, the airplane crashed into a wooded range of hills near the small town of Bassersdorf, around 4 km (2.5 miles) short of the runway, where it broke apart and went up in flames. Twenty-four people died (including the cockpit crew and a flight attendant), while nine (seven passengers and two flight attendants) survived.