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Journalism of Courage
Several hundred airline lovers rushed on Thursday to buy the remains of failed flag carrier Swissair, snapping up cutlery and miniature wine bottles in a liquidation jumble sale of a great aviation name. “I want a souvenir from Swissair, a Swiss airline that no longer exists and that is a great pity,” said Anita Maerkli, 32, who came with her mother.
Security guards restrained the crowd as doors to the sale opened close to the former headquarters of the 71-year-old company that folded under a mountain of debt one year ago. They were allowed into the building in batches of 200.
Liquidator Kurt Hoss expects at least 100,000 people to buy articles ranging from tiny mementoes such as a Swissair-labelled wine bottle for one euro to expensive porcelain crockery from Hutschenreuther and Langenthal over the next few weeks.
Expected proceeds of over 10 million francs will refund a fraction of the debts of more than 12.5 billion Swiss francs ($8.36 billion). On sale are 1.6 million stainless-steel steel knives, forks and spoons and 360,000 pieces of first-class silver.
More than two million plastic bowls and glasses, blankets, baseball caps and skibags are up for grabs. Beat Werfli was the first to arrive at the scene at 0200GMT, some five hours before the doors opened.
“I want a warm blanket, a jacket and a ballpen,” he said. An over ambitious foreign expansion plan saddled Swissair with minority stakes in loss-making airlines such as Belgium’s Sabena and France’s Air Liberte.
