The Swiss Air Crash

On its way to New York from Geneva, the renowned Swiss Air 111 suddenly found its electrical systems failing one by one as a cockpit fire overheated the wiring. The crew decided to make an emergency landing at Halifax Airport, venting fuel over the ocean as it wheeled into place. The plane never made it to the airstrip, falling into the Atlantic Ocean. 229 people died. Painstaking reconstruction has suggested that degraded wiring insulation or overheated halogen lights may have caused the fire.