The crash of the flight Swissair 111 close to Peggy’s Cove (Canada), on the 2nd of September 1998 has been a landmark accident. In the recent history of airline accidents, it’s probably the only one where the crew not only made no mistake, but had no chance to escape their fatal fate.

I was not even thinking of flying by that time, I was in the middle of my four months long mandatory military training. Even in the rather closed military microcosm, we got informed about it. For Switzerland it was a nation-wide disaster. Most people in Geneva can relate to one passenger, directly or indirectly.

The investigation took years, and did finally bring an incredibly long chain of event, which made impossible for the pilots to know what was going on. When they realized the extent of the situation, it was simply to late. The details have been extensively discussed, and the final report is more than 380 pages long.

The reason I post about this accident today is that the tapes recording the conversations exchanged between the crew of Swissair 111 and the air traffic controllers have been made public recently. These tapes have been available to the investigation crew only, and a legal argument went up to the Canadian Supreme Court, before they finally got released.

If they don’t bring any new elements, the emotional load of carried by these recordings in simply enormous. Both pilots and controllers acted in an extremely professional way. At a moment, the Captain transmits something that he was in fact saying to the co-pilot. When the controller asks what it is, the Captain calmly apologizes for the error.

Hearing voices has nearly nothing in common with reading a transcription. Listening to these records while already knowing about the fatal ending was a very shaking experience for me. The great respect I have for these persons – crew and controllers – grown even bigger after that.

There is no doubts in my mind that these gentlemen made all what they could to get out of an improbable situation, with no possible escape.

They definitely deserve our highest respect.

If you want to read more about this accident, hear the tapes, or read the transcription, visit the links below. Be however aware that the sound quality, and contents of the recordings make them hard to understand if you’re not used to pilot / controller communications.

CTV Page with links to the tapes and their transcription

Swissair 111 final investigation report