Neglected Duty

Flight 712, from Geneva to London, began routinely one balmy summer's night three weeks ago. Aboard the 40-passenger Swissair Convair there were only five passengers: four Englishwomen and a ten-year-old boy, returning from holidays in Switzerland. Over the English Channel. 35 minutes from flight's end, one engine gave out, then the other coughed and went dead. The plane landed on a calm sea, only a mile from shore, but it carried no lifebelts, jackets or dinghies (required only when a flight is more than 30 minutes over water). Before boats from shore could reach the plane, it sank. Unable to swim, two of the women passengers and the boy drowned.

Last week Swissair, admitting "grave human failings" in its first fatal crash in 15 years, fired the pilot and copilot, and announced the simple, shocking cause of the tragedy: the crew had neglected to have the plane refueled at Geneva.

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