Viennese flight miracle: Hapag-Lloyd machine survives crash landing!

Viennese flight miracle: Hapag-Lloyd machine survives crash landing!

Wien, Österreich - On July 12, 2025, we remember a memorable incident that occurred 25 years ago at Vienna Airport. The flight Hapag-Lloyd 3378, an Airbus A310-304 with the identification D-ALAB, was on the way from Crete to Hanover when there was a dramatic incident near Vienna. With 143 passengers and 8 crew members on board, this day remained in history as a "Hapag-Lloyd-Wunder from Vienna".

The flight started on July 12, 2000 in Chania, but soon it turned out that one of the two main drives of the Airbus could not be fully run in. This led to an increased fuel consumption of 60%, which further tightened the Situation. The captain decided to head Vienna after Munich was no longer available. Just 20 kilometers before the planned emergency landing, the aircraft turned into a glider because the fuel threatened to assume.

The emergency landing

The emergency landing ended 700 meters before slopes 34 when the plane opened on a field. The left main chassis collapsed, which led to considerable damage to the aircraft. Fortunately, there were no fatalities despite the dramatic incident: all 151 inmates survived, with 26 passengers suffering minor injuries.

The exact cause of the accident was later identified as inadequate counter -mother of the chassis feed hydraulics. An error in the adjustment had accumulated on 10 mm, which prevented the chassis prevented. The crew management also played a role: Captain ignores the copilot's proposals to explain an air emergency and to land in Graz, whereby the emergency report was only deployed 12 nautical miles in front of the runway.

consequences of the incident

The evacuation after landing was a challenge that injured some of the passengers. After the incident, the aircraft wreck was recovered by a crane company and the airport fire brigade and later sold and exploited. The captain lost his flight license and was sentenced to a probation penalty of six months. This near-catastrophe still attracts interest today, as a new podcast by Andreas Spaeth and Benjamin Denes as well as a non-fiction book by Patrick Huber show that contains interviews with contemporary witnesses and exclusive images.

Aircraft streams are a serious topic in aviation worldwide. Statistics show that there have been many tragic incidents in civil aviation since 1945, but the "Hapag-Lloyd-Wonder of Vienna" is a ray of hope, since all occupants survived and the horrors of an aircraft accident were at least mitigated. This shows once again: it can also go out well in critical situations, and July 12 will surely be remembered for a long time.

Find out more about this incident on Austrian wings , Wikipedia and the fascinating data for aircraft dumplings on Statista .