About Rainer Pfister

Does anyone know more about a Swiss race car driver called Rainer Pfister? He was killed in the 1974 Turkish Airlines DC-10 crash in Ermenonville, France, with 345 fellow passengers and crewmembers....

That actually rings a bell,  but far, far away. He lived somewhere near Zürich and raced a Fiat 124 Coupé in Group 1 (Production Series) trim. I vaguely remember having seen his name on an entry list with something more serious (F3 ??), but without any results. Maybe that plane crash explains it. 

Thanks for this information. You have given some leads to follow now...

Pfister is a relatively common name in Switzerland. There was a sports car driver J. Pfister in the sixties, and Formula V drivers Urs Pfister in 1972 and O. Pfister in 1973/'74. Neither Rainer nor Reiner Pfister does yield any results in an Automobile Revue search, and only two irrelevant hits with R. Pfister. Sorry.

Edited by Michael Ferner, 18 February 2015 - 20:16.

I have a book that lists the passengers in the Turkish Airlines DC-10, it lists him as
 

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Swiss:
Mr Ranier Pfister, 26, race car driver.

 

I can't imagine a connection between Rainer and Urs, Jürg and Oscar, the other racing Pfisters in Switzerland. It is very doubtful if Rainer ever had a licence that would have allowed him to race even on national level. That's the reason for never being mentioned in "Automobil Revue". I think that "racing driver" entry in the passengers list was nothing more than a bad joke to impress the stewardesses (as they were called at the time).

There is a notice of death in the newspaper "Tages Anzeiger Zurich" of March 11, 1974. Apparently Rainer Pfister had a brother named Urs. Could this be the Formula V driver Urs Pfister ?

 

I'd rather say no, they didn't live in the same area. But I can't exclude it.