In a twist worthy of a political sitcom, Switzerland’s brand-new Bombardier Global 7500, a $117 million (103 million CHF) marvel of engineering, was meant to embody Swiss precision and power projection. Instead, it’s now parked in Antalya, Turkey—grounded by engine trouble, just weeks into service.
Purchased as the crown jewel of the Federal Council’s diplomatic fleet, the Global 7500 had only just been cleared for takeoff in February. By March, it had already called it a day. According to the Swiss Army, during Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis’s official visit to Ankara, the aircraft suffered a sudden power loss in one of its engines during takeoff. While the crew managed to get the plane to Antalya safely, the Swiss Air Transport Service (STAC) swiftly decided it was not worth testing fate on the return leg.
In an unintentionally poetic downgrade, Cassis and his entourage flew back to Switzerland aboard the Falcon 900, a much older, smaller aircraft that has become the go-to understudy when the star refuses to perform.
With its subdued cockpit and modest frame, the Falcon is a far cry from the four-zone, zero-gravity-seat, haute-aviation palace that is the Global 7500. Yet it did the one thing its lavish replacement couldn’t—get everyone home in one piece.
The blunder, of course, goes far beyond the technical hiccup. This jet was already in hot water for being too large for its hangars in Bern, forcing it to shack up 40 kilometers away at Payerne Air Base. Add to that the small detail that the main capital runway is too short for it to take off fully fueled, and you have a textbook example of bureaucratic overshoot—a jet so advanced, it outgrew the country’s infrastructure.
Now grounded, the $117 million jet awaits a full diagnosis, likely wondering how it became the protagonist in Switzerland’s most expensive comedy of errors. Meanwhile, back in Bern, officials are likely rethinking whether bigger really is better—or just harder to park, fly, and fix.
