Queen of the Netherlands (ship)
Queen of the Netherlands is a Dutch trailing suction hopper dredger ship constructed in 1998. After lengthening in 2009, she was the largest and most powerful dredger in the world. The vessel has been used in high-profile salvage and dredging operations including the investigation into the Swissair Flight 111 crash and in the Port Phillip Channel Deepening Project. It has been called "the world's largest floating vacuum cleaner".
Queen of the Netherlands docked at the Port of Melbourne
Swissair Flight 111 (SR111/SWR111) was a scheduled international passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States, to Cointrin Airport in Geneva, Switzerland. The flight was also a codeshare flight with Delta Air Lines. On 2 September 1998, the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 performing this flight, registration HB-IWF, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Halifax Stanfield International Airport at the entrance to St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia. The crash site was 8 kilometres from shore, roughly equidistant from the small fishing and tourist communities of Peggy's Cove and Bayswater, killing all 229 passengers and crew on board the MD-11, making the crash the deadliest accident in the history of Swissair and the deadliest accident involving the McDonnell Douglas MD-11. It is also the second-deadliest aviation accident to occur in Canada, behind Arrow Air Flight 1285R.
HB-IWF, the aircraft involved in the accident, at Zurich Airport in July 1998
Swissair Flight 111 crashed 8 km (5 mi) off the coast of Peggy's Cove. Pictured is the community's iconic Peggys Point Lighthouse in 2005, with St. Margarets Bay seen below the lighthouse on the right.
CCGS Hudson searches for Swissair Flight 111 debris on 14 September, with HMCS Anticosti (centre), USS Grapple (right), and a Halifax-class frigate (rear).
Cargo door and other recovered debris