Swissair Grounding

Here is a very short summary of what had happened: In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US the already overwhelming financial problems of the Swissair Group became even worse. This finally resulted in the application for a moratorium of debt enforcement on the evening of October 1, along with the announcement that Crossair will become independent again (i.e. two large Swiss banks will buy all the Crossair shares held by Swissair and thus take a controlling interest in Crossair) and take over a large amount of Swissair's operations from the end of October. Swissair itself was supposed to continue flying until that date, however cash ran out fast on October 2 after the announcement from the evening before because no more credit was granted from Swissair's suppliers, and finally the airline had to ground its entire fleet from the afternoon of that day. Emergency meetings took place on October 3, and in the evening the Swiss government announced that it will grant Swissair a credit of 450 million Swiss Francs to resume a reduced schedule from the next day.

Below are some impressions I took at Zurich airport on October 3 when the entire Swissair fleet was on the ground.