Crash of Swissair Flight 111

Date: September 2, 1998 • Location: Chester, Canada

A fire in the cockpit on Swissair Flight 111, en route from New York City to Geneva, caused the aircraft to crash into the Atlantic Ocean near Canada, killing all 229 people on board.

Swissair Flight 111 was a scheduled international passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States, to Cointrin Airport in Geneva, Switzerland. The flight was also a codeshare flight with Delta Air Lines. On 2 September 1998, the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 operating this flight crashed into the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Halifax Stanfield International Airport at the entrance to St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, killing all 215 passengers and 14 crew members on board. The crash site was 8 kilometres from shore, roughly equidistant from the small fishing and tourist communities of Peggys Cove and Bayswater. It is the deadliest accident in Swissair history, the deadliest involving the MD-11, and the second-deadliest aviation accident in Canada, behind Arrow Air Flight 1285R.