20 years later : Remembering Swissair 111

It's been 2 decades since Swissair Flight 111 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Nova Scotia's coast.

On Sept. 2, 1998, the plane took off from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at 8:18 p.m. Eastern bound for Geneva, Switzerland carrying 215 passengers and a crew of 14.

Approximately one hour into the flight while in the vicinity of Yarmouth, pilot Urs Zimmerman reported a smoke in the cockpit. 

After a conversation with air traffic control, it was decided the plane would fly over the Atlantic to dump fuel before making an emergency landing at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

Ten minutes later, at 10:24 p.m., Zimmerman officially declared an emergency. Shortly after air traffic controllers lost communication with the Boeing MD-11.

At 10:31 p.m., Swissair 111 crashed into the ocean near Peggys Cove killing all 229 on board.

Journalist and author of Flight 111: The Tragedy Of The Swissair Crash, Stephen Kimber, said many living in the area heard the aircraft and the sound of the crash.

“They didn't know what is was, but they did what they always do,” Kimber told NEWS 95.7's The Rick Howe Show. “They hopped in their boats — these were mostly fisherman — and motored out to try and do what they could to rescue people. They did not understand the magnitude of what had just happened.”

Those hoping to help were met with a gruesome scene. The airliner shattered upon impact and it soon became apparent there would be no survivors.

In the aftermath of the crash, Kimber said more than 6,000 Nova Scotians sought counseling, many suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“If you think about all the people who went out searching along the shorelines looking for body parts, search and recovery people, the navy divers who went down into the waters off Peggys Cove gathering bits and pieces, the people in Shearwater who kept the body parts and tried to identify them through DNA.”

One of those who sought out help was Bob Conrad, who headed out in his boat shortly after the plane went down.

“My wife was quick to point out things just weren't right.”

The fisherman from Fox Point wanted to do what he could to help that night.

“It wasn't too long after we were in the general area that it became very clear we had found the wreckage site for sure,” he told Rick Howe. “The smell of the diesel oil and there was a lot of debris.”

Conrad was able to recover what he first thought was a doll.

“There were two children on the flight, it took a while for them to be identified because of the nature of the disaster,” he said. “Eventually it was made known it was a boy with the same name as mine.”

Robert Maillet had been just 14-months old.

Conrad tried to pull a large suitcase into his boat, but it was too heavy for him to lift. However he was able to grab a brown suede jacket that had been hanging out of the luggage.

Once families of the victims started arriving in Nova Scotia, Conrad and his wife invited some of them to spend time in their home. 

One of them was Nancy White. According to Kimber's book, her 18-year-old daughter Rowenna had been on her way to Switzerland to study hotel management.

“These family members always want to know every detail you can possibly remember,” explained Conrad. “I happened to be mentioning the story of encountering that jacket only to find out from her mom that was actually her daughter's jacket.”

It created an instant bond between the two. To this day, Conrad keeps a photo of Rowenna Lee Wight White on his piano.

When asked why he felt he needed to hop in his boat that night and head out, he replied, “You just do it.”

“We knew it was a plane crash, we knew that some kind of carnage had happened and if we could do anything to help in that circumstance, well we would have to be there and we were.”

A memorial service will be held at the monument in Bayswater on Sunday at 3 p.m. It will be followed by a reception at the Blandsford Community Centre.