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On the evening of August 26, 2018, SWISS flight LX564 departed from Zurich, Switzerland. The Airbus A320-214 carried 166 passengers and crew aboard. Bound for Nice, France, no one suspected that they would experience a terrifying in-flight emergency due to a sudden and bizarre food reaction that would knock out the pilot in command.
When the pilot passed out, he was barely able to communicate to the co-pilot what was happening, and his body involuntarily made control inputs when he was unconscious. The first officer was able to correct the plane despite reaching a sink rate of over 1,500 feet per minute, according to the Daily Beast. Thankfully, the plane safely made it to the ground with no injuries or damage, and the captain even regained consciousness just before landing.
Crisis Strikes Flight LX564 As The Landing Gear Goes Down
The co-pilot was able to take the controls thanks to the pilot in command communicating his imminent medical condition. Initially, the plane was stable but after about 10 seconds the captain inadvertently caused a roll input via the side stick control which caused the plane to bank ten degrees to the right. The first officer corrected this unintended course change but the pilot’s unconscious body slumped over and caused an eight-degree bank to the left. The co-pilot once again corrected the aircraft and pushed the captain’s seat back to clear him away from the controls.
The captain suffered from food poisoning, which led to a rare fainting response due to a nervous system overreaction. This was confirmed in the report released by the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (STSB) on March 17, 2026. The incident occurred as the airplane began its descent into Nice late on the evening of the 26th. The captain regained consciousness as the co-pilot was descending through 200 feet, about 30 seconds before touchdown on runway 04L.
The first officer sent an emergency message to air traffic control, using the ‘Pan Pan’ distress signal as the jet taxied away from the active runway. The co-pilot stopped the aircraft on the taxiway immediately after exiting and awaited first responders to attend to the captain’s medical condition. The report stated, after the engines were shut down the captain admitted to the first officer:
“[I] had felt a bit sick during the entire flight.”
How Pilots Handle Distress On The Flight Deck
The co-pilot sent a specific distress call to air traffic control once the jet was on the ground to indicate that there was an urgent, but not immediate life-threatening danger to the plane. That signal is known as ‘Pan-Pan’ which is of one lesser degree of severity than the well-known emergency distress call, ‘Mayday.’ There is a full procedure that follows declaring emergency in the air, however given that the jet was on the way to landing and the co-pilot was unable to transmit his emergency before touchdown, it was likely much more abbreviated.
In this case the emergency was immediately made apparent as the captain communicated to the co-pilot what he was experiencing. When incapacitation is more subtle, standard procedure dictates the ‘two communication rule’ which dictates taking control if a crew member fails to respond to two verbal cues. Under normal conditions the pilot would confirm positive control of the plane, as the first officer did in this case, but did not make use of autopilot as they would in some other situations, and due to the extreme time pressure the situation was also unable to use ‘take over’ button and instead simply had to move the captain away from the controls.
Similarly, there was no time to restrain the pilot or summon assistance from the cabin crew, nor to provide any medical aid before the jet was on the ground. All of those measures are standard steps for other in-flight emergencies. The co-pilot did inform air traffic control of the situation via his distress call but likely did not change his transponder to squawk code 7700 as he was no longer in the air and did not need to de-conflict with other flying airliners.
107 Knots To Disaster: How Close An SAS Jet Came To The Fuel Farm
A heart-stopping moment as the aircraft accelerates on the wrong path, narrowly avoiding catastrophe.
SWISS Strikes Again: Bad Catering Fells Another Pilot
A similar, separate incident involving a SWISS Airbus A321 pilot suspected of food poisoning occurred on the afternoon of August 7, 2020, during a flight from Frankfurt, Germany. This case also happened during landing approach but on the way into land at Zurich. The unaffected pilot declared ‘Mayday’ to air traffic control but safely landed on runway 28 and first responders met the jet on the taxiway where it was escorted to the gate.
This series of events was especially unusual as airlines have rules that recommend, or even demand, pilots eat different meals before flying an aircraft to reduce the risk of gastrointestinal complications. It’s possible for even this preventative measure to be insufficient when catering facilities create common contamination despite the difference in dishes.
