Background
The 33-seat Saab-340B airplane used for Crossair Flight LX498 had been leased to Crossair from Moldavian Airlines since 1 October 1999. The plane was scheduled to depart from Zurich Airport (Switzerland) on Monday, 10 January 2000, at around 6:00 p.m. and arrive in Dresden Airport (Germany) a few hours later. The cold, drizzly weather was normal for the area, there were no indications that anything was wrong with the aircraft, and, although this particular aircraft had 24,000 flying hours since its November 1990 delivery, this type of airplane had a very good safety record. The pilot had 8,100 hours of flying time, with 1,900 in the Saab 340 type and the co-pilot had about 1,800 total hours and 1,100 hours in the Saab 340 type. The plane was carrying no unusual payload such as freight or mail and the plane was not due for its next regular maintenance check for another 21 days, on 31 January 2000.
Read more about this topic: Crossair Flight 498
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