Swissair Down: A Pilot's View of the Crash at Peggy's Cove

Citation

Levinson, D.J. (2000), "Swissair Down: A Pilot's View of the Crash at Peggy's Cove", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 9 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2000.07309eae.003

Swissair Down: A Pilot's View of the Crash at Peggy's Cove

Swissair Down: A Pilot's View of the Crash at Peggy's Cove

Don LedgerNimbus PublishingHalifax, Nova Scotia2000ISBN 1-55109-301-4

In a well-organized volume replete with technical aeronautical details often bordering on overly tedious reading, the author makes a convincing case that the SR 111 crash occurred as the combined product of cockpit smoke/conflagration, loss of electrical power, pilot decisions, and weather. Accurate details of what happened aboard the aircraft are often missing, and the author, himself a pilot, fills in the void with well-reasoned and professional conjecture regarding probable situations and sequences of events.

One gets the feeling, however, that the author tries to fly the ill-fated plane with 20:20 hindsight. Rather than concentrating on how the victims might have been saved if, it seems more constructive to find better methods of bringing a maximum of information to the pilot (such as the cause, location, and extent of smoke/fire).

Even the author agrees that both pilot and’co-pilot were both experienced and well-trained. If there was a fault in decisions, it was due to lack of available information or too strictly following approved procedures.

It was encouraging to read the author's account how the Swissair tragedy was a turning point, encouraging pilots to request emergency landings despite the financial cost to the aviation company. If this report is accurate, this re-examination of the decision-making process is a welcome development in aviation safety.

Dr Jay Levinson