Swissair Flight 111

Swissair Flight 111

HB-IWF, the aircraft involved in the accident, seen at Zurich Airport in July 1998, two months before the crash.
Accident summary
Date	2 September 1998
Summary	In-flight fire, leading to electrical and instrument failure, causing spatial disorientation and loss of control
Site	Atlantic Ocean, near St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada
Passengers	215
Crew	14
Fatalities	229 (all)
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	McDonnell Douglas MD-11
Aircraft name	Vaud
Operator	Swissair
Registration	HB-IWF
Flight origin	John F. Kennedy Int'l Airport New York City, United States
Destination	Cointrin International Airport Geneva, Switzerland

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Swissair Flight 111 (ICAO: SWR111) was a scheduled international passenger flight from New York City, United States, to Geneva, Switzerland. This flight was also a codeshare flight with Delta Air Lines. On 2 September 1998, the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 performing this flight, registration HB-IWF, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Halifax International Airport at the entrance to St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia. The crash site was 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from shore, roughly equidistant from the tiny fishing and tourist communities of Peggys Cove and Bayswater. All 229 passengers and crew aboard the MD-11 died—the highest death toll of any McDonnell Douglas MD-11 accident in aviation history, and the second-highest of any air disaster to occur in Canada, after Arrow Air Flight 1285, which crashed in 1985 with 256 fatalities. This is one of the three MD-11 accidents with passenger fatalities along with China Eastern Airlines Flight 583 and another hull loss of China Airlines Flight 642.

The search and rescue response, crash recovery operation, and investigation by the Government of Canada took over four years and cost CAD 57 million (at that time approximately US$38 million). The Transportation Safety Board of Canada's (TSB) report of their investigation stated that flammable material used in the aircraft's structure allowed a fire to spread beyond the control of the crew, resulting in a loss of control and the crash of the aircraft.

Swissair Flight 111 was known as the "UN shuttle" because of its popularity with United Nations officials; the flight also carried business executives, scientists, and researchers.