Nearly four years after the accident, the Swiss Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (BFU) published its final report on the Jan. 10, 2000 crash of a Crossair Saab 340B at Nassenwil near Zurich Airport. The unusual delay stems from appeals filed against the BFU’s conclusions, the most publicized objection coming from Moritz Suter, Crossair’s CEO at the time of the accident. One day after the report’s publication the Swiss governmental appeal board was asked to review it, meaning it might not be “final” after all. The BFU confirmed its findings as published in an intermediate report in September 2002, which singled out pilot error as the main cause of the crash.
Crossair Flight 498 took off from Runway 28 at Zurich Airport at 4:54:10 p.m. GMT for a scheduled flight to Dresden, Germany. The twin turboprop crashed two minutes 17 seconds later in a field near the village of Nassenwil. All 10 occupants died and the aircraft caught fire. The flight crew included a 42-year-old captain who was a native of Moldavia and a 35-year-old first officer from Slovakia. They had flown together on nine flights during the previous four days without incident or known personality clashes. English was their only common language, but while the first officer spoke fluent English the captain had only sufficient command of the language to accomplish his job.
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