Over at
Airliners(dot)net there is a thread on this incident. Some of the posters there were monitoring Swiss ATC as the aircraft approached, circled and eventually landed at GVA.
There is some speculation that the aircraft was very low on fuel, awaiting clearance to land from the Swiss, and may even have flamed out on one engine. (Starting at post number 68) Nothing concrete but a few posters were debating if they had each heard the same thing.
Methinks the Swiss kept them up in the air just a bit too long …