Swissair

[Few Cloudy]

Next week the Swissair management is going to court.

They have a lot to answer for and I hope they don´t wriggle free - especially the thick skinned ones, who tried to get back in the business starting new airlines.

We will see!

FC.

[Chomeur]

As someone who was one of the many shafted by these bandits, I sincerely hope they will receive approprate justice for the crimes committed.

[Al Fakhem]

Interestingly, Swiss tabloid "Blick" carried an article in its online edition earlier today suggesting that the entire case as prepared by the DA's office was so poorly put together it was essentially designed to fail in obtaining a verdict against the various defendants. (This is the second attempt by the DA - the first case file was rejected by the court). However, the article has now vanished.

If this was Singapore, one would be tempted to suspect a compliant judiciary.

:=

[AN2 Driver]

Al Fakhem

The interpretation here was more like rank stupidity caused by furious putting together of half baked factoids rather than a solid case. Looks very different now that the prosecution apparently have got their act together.
There is a lot of interest in this, as can be expected, plus, there are many people here who have more than one chicken farm to fry with those involved. Justice? I hope so, but won't hold my breath. For me, I shall be quite satisfied if some of the people involved who deserve it (by far not all do) are stripped of their worldly goods and set on the street like many of those who have been treated as such by their incompetence.

[Few Cloudy]

There are very few people who have so far appeared as heroes. The name in the title is at the top of the list.

Said gentleman is reportedly not doing too well and living across the pond.

I wonder how he will come out of it...

[Basil Smallpiece]

Mario a hero? Have you forgotten that he cynically cashed in 21,000,000 Swiss Francs (then £10,000,000) in advance before even poking his nose into the Ballsberg? Let's hope he's made to squirm next week, I'll be there with a bag of rotten tomatoes...

[Al Fakhem]

Whilst it must most certainly have been the ill-fated Alcazar strategy that dug a huge hole for the entire SAir group, in the end it was the tactics of obstruction and delay by UBS (egged on by Moritz) that caused the grounding.

So my money is on Marcel - but he's had more resources on hand to finance a PR campaign aimed at absolving himself of any responsibility (at least in the eyes of the public). Imagine - the chairman of Switzerland's largest bank flying to the US in a corporate jet and being out of contact due to a "malfunctioning on-board phone" - total BS.


(Why do all the suspects have names commencing with M)?

A good site with a very complete account of the sad story: http://www.swissair-grounding.net/

[Basil Smallpiece]

I would'nt blame Marcel, he's just a #anker who wasn't prepared to lend one rappen more to a rotten liability. Lukas of CS maybe because he was on the board.

I blame Otto (d1998) and his board of cronies - panicked into the 'Alcazar' disaster (projected merger with Sabena and KLM), dominated by Moritz, and responsible for the IFEN (in flight entertainment system) fiasco that led to the mass murder of 229 passengers and crew on 2nd September 1998.

[Hunter58]

Strong accusations Basil, very strong accusations...

Anyway, stupidity is not a criminal offense and therefore the outcome of the trial is likely to be nil.

[ettore]

Basil strong wording is certainly not appropriate but not that far from a fragment of truth, if I may put it that way...:}
What's really amazing: since this thread started, I couldn't read here the names of the true bad guys: former CEO Bruggisser and former Head of Finances Schorderet.:eek:
One should figure out how far their criminal energy reached as they used illegal means - including corruption - : :mad:
A/ to take the control over foreign companies and their top managers in spite of EU-Rules limiting a non-EU Swiss participation to 49% at least in four european countries: Belgium (SN); France (AOM, Air Liberte, Air Littoral), Portugal (TAP) and Germany (LTU);
B/ to conceal the huge losses of the SAirGroup up the end. When Schorderet was fired (Mid 2001), almost no one but him (and some bankers) knew how big the disaster was.
If Corti had known, he wouldn't have ever taken the bid to restructure the company, even not for 21 Mio Swiss Francs! In turn, he lied too, about a one billion Swiss francs revolving facility (April 2001) and did some cosmetic instead of selling asap what could really bring some cash in. Ironically, Corti said so, at a time he hadn't yet checked what the bank analysts already knew: even if this 1 Bn credit line had really been secured, it would never have been enough to achieve a turn-around :ugh:
So, what do we have? A bunch of criminals, on one hand, big dummies on the other, and somewhere in between a huge crowd of people, who just couldn't believe what was happening to them.:ooh:
PS: I forgot to mention LOT but Poland was still a long way from belonging to the EU.

[gofer]

Today's papers are full of Swiss reporting a profitable year - their first ever if you ignore their parent companies, together with the boss saying that its NOT ENOUGH - with a caption below of the LH & LX figures. LH's Turnover to Profit ratio is much worse - so what the hell is that little p**squ**k, pratteling on about - He wants more profits so we will help him cut costs - I've stopped being an SLF and a friend of mine (crew) has just resigned. When all the flight deck have left that should save him a fortune - what a pratt.

A column away they moan about Hairbus's 1/2 billion losses, while the unions bitch that with a full order book nobody should be laid-off.

Methinks the worlds population was not listening very hard when math and economics were on the agenda !!!! Nor when diplomacy and strategic thinking were required to be imbibed either.
Ours not to wonder why - ours just to do and die.....;)

[Just a spotter]

This from the beeb ...


"You know, we thought Swissair was perfect," says a journalist friend. "And we thought Switzerland was perfect; actually we thought we were perfect."
"It turns out that Swissair wasn't perfect at all, it was rotten through and through. That made us think, about ourselves and our country, and that's good for us."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6428019.stm

I suppose it's a harkening back to the concept at the very heart of a National Flag Carrier.

JAS