Accidents and Incidents
Over the 71 year history of Swissair, there were nine major incidents reported resulting in 390 fatalities.
| 19 June 1954 | A Convair CV-240 ditches due to fuel starvation in the English Channel, near Folkestone. All three crew members survive, but three of the five passengers die as they are unable to swim. Passenger aircraft at this time were not obliged to carry life rafts or life-jackets, and this was one of the many incidents which inspired this obligation to be passed as law. |
| 15 July 1956 | A Convair CV-440 crashes during a delivery flight from San Diego, California to Zurich via New York, Gander and Shannon. On approach to Shannon, the pilots execute an abnormally steep turn, causing the aircraft to stall and drop to the ground. Four crew members die. |
| 18 June 1957 | A Douglas DC-3 crashes during a flight exercise conducted under visual flight rules with nine people aboard. All die. The aim of the exercise was to practise flying with one engine switched off and propellers feathered. |
| 4 September 1963 | Without authorization, the pilot of Caravelle operating Flight 306 carrying seventy-four passengers and six crew members taxies halfway along a runway at Zurich Airport in order to inspect and clear fog. He then returns to the start of the runway and takes off. Ten minutes later the aircraft crashes, killing all on board. During its initial ascent, witnesses state they saw smoke issuing from one of its engines. Subsequent investigation establishes that braking during the pilot's unauthorized maneuver overheated a tyre, causing it to burst, damaging a fuel line and starting the fire that ultimately led to loss of aircraft control. This accident had a significant impact on the small town of Humlikon, 43 residents out of a population of just over 200 died in the accident. |
| 10 February 1967 | A Convair CV-440 collides with a cloud-covered mountain; four crew members died. |
| 21 February 1970 | A bomb on board a Convair CV-990 operating Flight 330 cripples nine minutes after take-off from Zurich to Tel Aviv. Forty-seven die when the aircraft crashes while attempting an emergency landing at Zurich. |
| 6 September 1970 | Three empty hijacked jet airliners, one belonging to Swissair, are blown up by terrorists at Dawson's Field, Zerqa, Jordan. |
| 8 October 1979 | A Douglas DC-8 lands under "adverse conditions" at Athens Ellinikon International Airport, overshooting the runway and killing fourteen passengers. The plane touches down at too great a speed and too far along the runway for the pilots to use sufficient braking and reverse thrust. |
| 2 September 1998 | A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 travelling from New York's JFK International Airport to Geneva crashes due to fire and subsequent instrument failure at night off the coast of Peggy's Cove, 80 km southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. All 215 passengers and 14 crew members died. |
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Famous quotes containing the words accidents and/or incidents:
“We are the men of intrinsic value, who can strike our fortunes out of ourselves, whose worth is independent of accidents in life, or revolutions in government: we have heads to get money, and hearts to spend it.”
—George Farquhar (1678–1707)
“An element of exaggeration clings to the popular judgment: great vices are made greater, great virtues greater also; interesting incidents are made more interesting, softer legends more soft.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)