Future of vintage Ju-52 aircraft remains up in the air

Twenty passengers died in the vintage Junker Ju-52 plane crash near Flims in the eastern Swiss Alpe in August 2018. It was Switzerland's worst air tragedy since 2001. Kantonspolizei Graubünden

Following the fatal crash of a Junkers Ju-52 plane in the Swiss Alps in 2018, the Ju-Air plane company had dreamed of bringing back the vintage aircraft. But hopes of a revival are fading.

For decades, vintage Junkers Ju-52 aircraft (affectionately known as ‘Tante Ju’ or ‘Auntie Ju’ in German) captured the hearts of people taking sightseeing flights in Switzerland. On August 5, 2018, however, a Ju-52 crashed at altitude near Flims in canton Graubünden. All twenty passengers lost their lives in the crash. Since then, the planes have been grounded.

Ju-Air, based in Dübendorf, was planning a revival. One of three original planes, the “HB-HOS”, was supposed to take to the skies again. The vintage aircraft had been transferred to the company Junkers-Flugzeugwerke AG, based in canton St Gallen, to make it airworthy again. But nothing came of it, as announced last year.

The Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne did not want the Ju-52 and so it is now in a German museum. As the online aviation site “Skynews.ch” reported, the plane has been in Wernigerode, 50km south of Braunschweig in central Germany, for several days.

Stricter rules for historical aviation

After the crash of a vintage Ju-52 aircraft in the eastern Alps in 2018, the Swiss government decided on stricter rules to oversee historic aircraft. Flights with historic aircraft may therefore no longer be offered commercially.

Non-commercial flights are still possible. But a maximum of nine people can be on board for flights by club members, and no more than six of them can be passengers.

The “HB-HOS” was sold for a symbolic CHF1 (around $1), confirmed Andreas Züblin, managing director of Centennial Aircraft Services AG, the new name for the Junkers aircraft factory.

“We tried everything to get this plane back in the air,” said Züblin, adding that tens of millions of Swiss francs had already been invested. “But the Federal Office for Civil Aviation advised us not to let these Ju-52s fly like this anymore,” he said.

Broken promise?

The people at Ju-Air in Dübendorf are disappointed and concerned, as the plane should have returned to the aviation museum there. They feel the Junkers aircraft factory did not keep their promise.

“Actually, the plane should have been handed back to us in decent condition to be exhibited,” Christian Gartmann, spokesperson for Ju-Air in Dübendorf, told Swiss public radio SRF. He says unfortunately, this promise was not kept, and presently there are no signs of any movement.

Ju-Air was not interested in taking over HB-HOS, says Züblin. He was not present at the negotiations that were conducted with Ju-Air at the time. He therefore did not want to comment further.

But Gartmann has not yet given up hope. Another Ju-52 is still in the aviation museum in Dübendorf. “We would like to put them back into operation,” he said. And despite their differences, Ju-Air continues to rely on the Junkers aircraft factory. “We can’t do it without external support,” he added.