Case history: novel FA techniques used to recover EEPROM data from the Swissair 111 crash

The need to recover data stored in a badly damaged and corroded EEPROM recovered from the Flight Control Computer of Swissair Flight 111, which crashed into the sea off Nova Scotia in October 1998, provided novel failure analysis challenges. The planning and the innovative failure analysis techniques used to read the pre-crash stored data are described. This case study is unusual in that the cause of the EEPROM failure was known and that the purpose was to develop techniques to help a far larger failure analysis, the accident investigation. The methods developed will support future accident investigations. Stress is placed on the precautions necessary to avoid accidental erasure of the stored memory.