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By Simon Hradecky, created Thursday, Feb 2nd 2017 00:12Z, last updated Friday, Feb 3rd 2017 12:18Z
A Swiss Global Airlines Boeing 777-300, registration HB-JND performing flight LX-40 from Zurich (Switzerland) to Los Angeles,CA (USA) with 217 people on board, was enroute at FL320 about 290nm north of Iqaluit,NU (Canada), when the left hand engine (GE90) showed a fault and shut down automatically. The flight crew drifted the aircraft down and diverted to Iqaluit for a safe landing about 100 minutes later.

The airline confirmed an indication of a fault of the left hand engine caused an automatic shutdown of the engine, as had been technically designed. The flight crew decided to divert to Iqaluit where the aircraft landed safely. The airline is currently working to take the passengers to Los Angeles.

A Swiss Airbus A330-300 registration HB-JHK positioned from New York JFK,NY (USA) to Iqaluit as flight LX-7002 and took the passengers from Iqaluit to New York's JFK Airport as flight LX-7003.

Swiss confirmed the passengers were taken to New York on flight LX-7003 and are going to continue their journey to Los Angeles as quickly as possible.

A passenger reported there had been no unusual sounds or vibrations before the captain announced that an engine had failed and they were diverting to Iqaluit. During talks with the cockpit while waiting for the relief flight the captain indicated the crew was puzzled too that the engine just ran down without any unusual indication, sounds or vibrations. On the ground in Iqaluit the aircraft initially could not turn around on the runway, a tow tug subsequently pushed the aircraft back onto the apron about 45 minutes after landing. The passengers were kept on board and were served dinner, customs in Iqaluit is geared to handle international flights with up to 15 passengers only and it didn't make a lot of sense of taking 217 people through immigration, which certainly would take several hours. In the meantime all school busses of Iqaluit were dispatched to the airport to transfer the passengers from the Boeing 777 to the relief A333. While mechanics arriving with the A333 started to check out the engine of the Boeing 777, the cargo was first moved from the B773 to the A333. As there was only one stair available, that could handle the Boeing 777 or A330, the passengers then needed to first disembark and enter the busses, the stairs were then repositioned to the A330, the passengers subsequently embarked the A333 including the entire Boeing 777 crew, who positioned to New York, too. After arrival in New York the passengers were rebooked onto direct flights to their ultimate destinations.

The engine needs to be replaced, the occurrence aircraft is estimated to remain on the ground in Iqaluit for at least 5 days. A replacement engine is being flown in. First information suggests a magnetic chip detector registered metallic particles in the engine oil.

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