Cockpit smoke after leaving Munich
Open event
Ten minutes after Swissair Flight 551 left Munich for Zurich on 16 October 1993, an overheating emergency power switch filled the MD-81's cockpit with dense smoke and knocked out the captain's instruments. The pilots flew back to Munich almost blind and landed 13 minutes after asking to return, and all 95 people on board survived the evacuation, 15 of them with minor injuries.
1 video perspective
-
35:02
Ten minutes out of Munich, a worn emergency power switch began to smoulder in the overhead panel of Swissair Flight 551, filling the MD-81's cockpit with thick smoke and knocking out the captain's…
Published 24 Oct 2026