Whilst the Crossair management were far from a brain-cell among them, the collapse of Swissair was brought about by nothing other than its own internal mismanaged empire-building and lack of foresight.
Integral to Swissair's plan of 1990s expansion was the dream to become the fourth largest European airline. Given Switzerland’s postage stamp size and barroom population, this pipe dream never got far from the pipe. Despite the obvious direction in which the company was heading, in January 2000 Swissair executive management remained amongst the highest paid executives in the world at the time. Swiss politicians and Swissair senior executives were partying in South Africa's Lowveld when the bailiff came to collect his 50 billion CHF whilst his brother shutdown Sabena for good measure!
Granted, subsequent to the Crossair takeover many
poor decisions were made, not the least of which was putting that moron André Dosé in charge. That said, Swissair went out of business because they were a bunch of cocky exceptionalists, not because Moritz Suter was a
, and no-one misses them less than I do.