One possible cause of fires in airplanes is wiring problems that involve intermittent faults , such as wires with breached insulation touching each other , having water dripping on them , or short circuits . Notable was Swissair Flight 111 in 1998 due to an arc in the wiring of IFE which ignite flammable MPET insulation . These are difficult to detect once the aircraft is on the ground . However , there are methods , such as spread-spectrum time-domain reflectometry , that can feasibly test live wires on aircraft during flight
Swissair Flight 111
Swissair Flight 111
Aviation safety