On 12 July 2000, the aircraft flying the route, an Airbus A310-304, had 143 passengers and 8 crew on board, set off for Hannover leaving the landing gear fully extended, as a precaution, since a malfunction had prevented its proper retraction after take-off.

[6] Shortly thereafter, the first officer noted and reported to the captain that they had already consumed half of their initial fuel load, although they had progressed to only their last waypoint "YNN" still inside Greece (about a third of the total distance to Vienna).

This prompted Vienna ATC to inquire and finally learn that the flight was short of fuel, but the pilots declared no emergency, still anticipating a normal landing.

[6] At this point, the crew was still debating a possible diversion to Graz, but discovered that the approach chart for that airport was missing from the aircraft map collection.

At 11:12 UTC, the crew still debated the contribution of the FMS to their flight; the first officer (correctly) distrusted its performance with gear down, while the captain still defended it.

As there was no time for the final checklist, the "Land Recovery" switch was neglected, resulting in limited operation of inboard ailerons needed for stability control at low speeds.

The report identified several key reasons why the cockpit crew failed to adequately cope with this relatively minor technical malfunction of the landing gear, continuing the flight to engine failure due to fuel exhaustion.

In 2004, a Hannover district court convicted Captain Arminger of "dangerous interference in the air traffic," saying he was "endangering others' lives" mainly by failing to divert to Zagreb, and gave him a six-month suspended prison sentence.

[11] A report published in 2012 by the American Bar Association argues that airline safety is undermined by such prosecutions because its threat would impede the investigative processes.