Around 06:12 the aircraft returned to runway 34 and was allowed to take off, which it did 06:13, and started to climb to flight level 150 (about 15,000 feet (4,600 m)), its cruising height.

At 06:22 the aircraft crashed into the ground on the outskirts of Dürrenäsch, approximately 35 kilometres (22 mi; 19 nmi) from Zürich Airport.

[1] The data from the airplane's flight recorder combined with a lack of radio calls from the crew suggested that they likely began experiencing difficulties at 06:18.

Irregularities in the data beginning roughly two minutes later indicated that the fire was causing electrical problems, while wreckage analysis suggested that parts of the airplane were detaching "with increasing frequency" around this time.

[2] There were 74 Swiss nationals on board as well as two Americans (one dual citizenship with Iran), one Briton, one Egyptian (Olympic rower Ibrahim Abdulhalim), one Israeli, and one passenger was either from Belgium or Austria.

[5] This crash severely affected the small village of Humlikon in the Canton of Zürich: 43 of its 217 citizens (20% of the population) had boarded the plane to visit a farm test site near Geneva.

Apprentices came from local firms, students, firemen, soldiers, boy scouts, railroad workers and policemen, as well as volunteer school children, and even from abroad to help.