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

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

On July 12, 2025, we remember a memorable incident that occurred 25 years ago at Vienna Airport. The Hapag-Lloyd flight 3378, an Airbus A310-304 with the registration D-AHLB, was on its way from Crete to Hanover when a dramatic incident occurred near Vienna. With 143 passengers and 8 crew members on board, this day went down in history as the “Hapag-Lloyd Miracle of Vienna”.

The flight took off from Chania on July 12, 2000, but it soon became apparent that one of the Airbus' two main landing gear could not be fully retracted. This resulted in increased fuel consumption of 60%, further aggravating the situation. The captain decided to head for Vienna after Munich could no longer be reached. Just 20 kilometers before the planned emergency landing, the plane turned into a glider because it was in danger of running out of fuel.

The emergency landing

The emergency landing ended 700 meters short of runway 34 when the aircraft crashed into a field. The left main landing gear collapsed, causing significant damage to the aircraft. Despite the dramatic incident, there were fortunately no fatalities: all 151 occupants survived, with 26 passengers suffering minor injuries.

The exact cause of the accident was later identified as an inadequately secured lock nut on the landing gear retraction hydraulics. An adjustment error had accumulated to 10 mm, which prevented the landing gear from retracting. Crew management also played a role: the captain ignored suggestions from the co-pilot to declare an air emergency and land in Graz, resulting in the emergency report only being issued 12 nautical miles from the runway.

Consequences of the incident

Evacuation after landing was a challenge that left some of the passengers injured. After the incident, the wreckage of the plane was recovered by a crane company and the airport fire department and later sold and salvaged. The captain lost his flying license and was given a suspended sentence of six months. This near-catastrophe still attracts interest today, as shown by a new podcast by Andreas Spaeth and Benjamin Denes and a non-fiction book by Patrick Huber that contains interviews with contemporary witnesses and exclusive images.

Plane crashes are a serious aviation issue worldwide. Statistics show that there have been many tragic incidents in civil aviation since 1945, but the “Hapag-Lloyd Miracle of Vienna” is still a ray of hope because all occupants survived and the horror of an aircraft accident was at least mitigated. This shows once again that things can turn out well even in critical situations, and July 12th will certainly be remembered for a long time.

Find out more about this incident on Austrian Wings, Wikipedia and the fascinating data on plane crashes Statista.