In 2014 , the South African investigative journalist Mark D. Young presented a theory that a short circuit in the onboard electronics may have caused the fire . The so-called wet arc tracking arises from the action of moisture when the insulation of live wires is damaged . A leakage current to another damaged wire with the respective potential difference may form . The resulting flashover may reach temperatures of up to . This temperature is sufficient to ignite the thermal-acoustic insulation blankets that were still used until the late 1990s . Such a short circuit caused the fire on board Swissair Flight 111 , resulting in the crash of the aircraft in 1998
Swissair Flight 111
Swissair Flight 111
South African Airways Flight 295