Swiss vintage planes can fly after crash, with conditions

BERLIN – Switzerland’s civil aviation authority says a local airline can resume flights with vintage Junkers Ju-52 planes after one of its aircraft crashed earlier this month, on condition that it take several precautionary measures.

A 79-year-old Ju-52 operated by Ju-Air crashed Aug. 4, killing all 20 people on board. The cause remains unclear and may be hard to determine because the veteran plane had no black boxes.

Ju-Air plans to resume flying Friday. The Federal Office of Civil Aviation said Thursday investigations so far have unearthed no “general technical problem” with Ju-52s that justifies grounding the planes.

But it said Ju-Air will be required to carry GPS data recorders on all flights, passengers must keep their seat belts fastened throughout the flights and Ju-Air’s aircraft must keep to a minimum altitude.