[Anonymous]

[LuganoPirate]

I arrived in Zurich from JNB at 6.05, 4th to land with two aircraft directly behind us. On reaching the train that connects E pier to the transit, there must have been over 400 people waiting. We had another 5 minutes to wait and people were zooming down those escalators non-stop.

By the time the train arrived there must have been over 800 people waiting. You can imagine the scrum that followed as people literally fought to get on. One pax remarked “it’s worse than Tokyo”!

Amazingly no-one was there to assist and two policemen who disembarked did nothing to help maintain order. I was lucky being first on (by knowing exactly where the doors are) so watched as people pushed and shoved. One man lost his glasses, another woman was separated from her case and could then not get off to retrieve it!!! A family with two young children were having a really hard time as the little girl was almost trodden on, thankfully rescued by someone else who lifted her up.

I was amazed and shame on Zurich Airport which is normally so well run, for allowing a situation like this to develop.

Shame also on the police who must have realised what would happen and did nothing.

But the biggest shame must go to the hundreds of passengers who were so selfish and uncaring in such a situation and who were not wiling to wait a few minutes for the next train. (they anyway had to wait to clear immigration).

[Capetonian]

I have seen exactly the same situation when arriving on that same flight from JNB. I agree with you that the greatest shame is on the passengers who behave worse than a herd of animals.

Once when something like this happened I saw a woman separated from her child, as the doors were closing, so I forced the doors open and the train could not go. The policemen who were standing watching the situation develop suddenly sprang into action and came and started yelling at me.

Things rarely go wrong at ‘Unique Airport’ but when they do, it’s badly handled.

[Inquisitive]

Is it something only with JNB arriving crowd?

[LuganoPirate]

Capetonian, just wondering, it felt like the nose wheel was retracted on take-off before the back of the plane had left the ground, certainly the wheels were retracted before we had reached the end of the runway. Maybe just my paranoia after the announcement we had had a weight problem- thinking, hot, heavy and high altitude! Did you notice anything?

[LuganoPirate]

Inquistive, no, because we were 4th to land and there were at least two other aircraft shortly after us. Never experienced that before at ZRH.

[craigwatson]

Lugano – The wheels will always be retracted before you reach the end of the runway. Gear is selected up upon an indication of a positive rate of climb, and due to the fact that at Vr you still have plenty of runway in front of you most of the time the gear will be at least travelling while still over the runway.

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