Thomas Douglas

September 3, 1998.

A Swissair plane en route from New York to Geneva crashes off the Canadian coast near Halifax. 229 people die. The new episode of the series "It happened on..." recaps the tragedy and shows how the accident changed the lives of the relatives forever. Student Stephanie Shaw was booked onto the unfortunate machine at the last moment. She was visiting her boyfriend in New York and wanted to go back to her family in Geneva. Father Ian Shaw was a successful businessman there and enjoyed life with his wife Gudula and children. But Stephanie has not arrived in Geneva. On the night of September 3, 1998, Swissair Flight 111 crashed over Canada's east coast near Halifax. Along with Stephanie, another 228 people lost their lives abruptly – and numerous families were destroyed. After the loss of his daughter, Ian Shaw fell into a deep crisis that he was only able to overcome when he left business and family in Geneva. He opened a restaurant on the Canadian coast - not far from the crash site. The film "It happened on... Swissair 111 - crash over Halifax" explores the question of how relatives and friends deal with the loss of their loved ones, who disappeared into the sea with the Swissair plane. It also shows how the airline, which is considered to be the “safest airline in the world”, was caught in such a tragedy that moved the whole of Switzerland. In addition to relatives and friends, Jürg Schmid, the then head of security, as well as helpers, doctors and investigators who were on duty in Halifax for weeks, commented.

With

Jürg Plüss (Urs Zimmermann)

Doris Schefer (Prisca Zimmerman)

Thomas Douglas (Ian Shaw)

Isabelle von Meyenburg (Gudula Shaw)

Amy Lombardi (Stephanie Shaw)

Jeanne Devos (Jeannine Pompili)

Lale Yavas (Monique Riesen)

Roger Bonjour (Stephan Loew)

Enya Ernst (Tabea Zimmermann)

Niilo Schweizer (Marco Zimmermann)

Mari Rüegg as Lara Zimmermann

Deborah Meister (airline agent)

Copyright: SRF