On a balmy September evening in 1998, Swissair flight 111 was in big trouble. A fire in the cockpit ceiling had at first blinded the pilots with smoke, leaving them to rely on instruments to ...

The search for the cause of the fire that brought down Swissair Flight 111 on the evening of September 2, 1998, killing all 229 people aboard, took over four years and cost $39 million.

The finance minister, Kaspar Villiger, said the government regretted the “painful consequences” which would follow for a section of the Swissair Group workforce, but confirmed that a state ...