On 18 October 2001 , Germany and Switzerland signed a treaty regarding the limitation of flights over Germany . Under the terms of this treaty , any incoming aircraft after 22:00 had to approach Zürich from the east to land on runway 28 , which , unlike the airport 's other runways , was not equipped with an instrument landing system . A month later , at 22:06 on 24 November , an inbound Crossair Avro RJ100 using this approach in conditions of poor visibility crashed into a range of hills near Bassersdorf and exploded , killing 24 of the 33 people on board . The flight had originally been scheduled to land on runway 14 before 22:00 , but it was subject to delay and was therefore diverted to runway 28
crashed into a range of hills
Crossair Flight 3597
Zurich Airport