Swissair Flight 306

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Swissair Flight SR306, a Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle III registry HB-ICV Schaffhausen, was a scheduled international flight from Zürich to Rome, via Geneva. It crashed on September 4, 1963 shortly after take-off, killing all 80 people on board.

Zurich International Airport (in Kloten, Switzerland) was in dense fog at the time of departure at 06:00 UTC. At 06:04 the flight was authorized to taxi to runway 34 behind an accompanying vehicle. At 06:05 the crew reported that they would taxi half way down runway 34 to inspect the fog condition and then return to take-off position. This was done, using at times considerable engine power probably in an attempt to disperse the fog. Around 06:12 the aircraft was back to the threshold of runway 34 and permission to take-off was granted. The flight took off at 06:13 hours and started to climb to flight level 150, its cruising altitude. Four minutes later witnesses on the ground noticed a whitish trail of smoke on the left side of the aircraft and suddenly a long flame from the left wing-root. Around 06:20 the aircraft reached an altitude of approximately 2700 m, it then began to lose height, entered a gentle left turn losing height more rapidly, and finally went into a steep dive. Parts of the aircraft became detached and at 06:21 a "MAYDAY" message was received. At 06:22 the aircraft crashed into the ground on the outskirts of Dürrenäsch, at an elevation of 559 m, approximately 35 km from Zürich/Kloten Airport.

[edit] Probable cause

The crash was due to the destruction of essential structural parts of the aircraft by a fire caused by overheating of the brakes during the taxiing phase. The overheated brakes caused the tires to explode, the burning parts of the tires damaged the hydraulic lines and ignited the oil. Due to the loss of hydraulics the aircraft was rendered uncontrollable.

[edit] Casualties

This crash had some severe ramifications for a small village in the Canton of Zürich:

43 people from Humlikon went to visit an agricultural test site near Geneva and therefore took the doomed flight. Of these 43 people were

19 married couples (who had a total of 39 children aged between 3 1/2 and 19 years that were orphaned),
1 mother of 3 minors
1 father of 2 minors
1 father of 2 of age children
2 single men.

The village lost one fifth of its 217 inhabitants in the crash, including all members of the municipal council, all the school-caretakers and the post office clerk.

Because most households still had grandparents or elder siblings, only six children had to leave their homes, all but one of whom were raised by relatives in other villages.

On October 26 and 27, the new municipal council was elected by the remaining 52 inhabitants entitled to vote. Due to the great loss of people it wasn't easy to fill all vacancies.

The next great problem was the farms, but here people from the surrounding villages helped immensely. Every day 40 to 70 volunteers (apprentices from industrial firms, students, firefighters, soldiers, boy scouts, railroad workers, policemen, schoolchildren etc. - even from abroad) helped, almost totalling 2000 hours so that the harvest (600 tonnes of potatoes without the help of machines) could be brought in, the corn could be threshed and the seeds could be brought out in time.

Today Humlikon has overcome this tragedy, but is still a small village (in fact the smallest in the Canton of Zürich).