Tim Krochak / Herald Photo A journalist descends a staircase after viewing the partly reconstructed cockpit area of the doomed Swissair MD-11 after a Transportation Safety Board news conference at 12 Wing Shearwater on Monday.

By Susan LeBlanc / Staff Reporter

For the first time since Swissair Flight 111 went down 27 months ago, the crash probe is shifting from 12 Wing Shearwater.

On Dec. 15, the investigation led by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada moves to the board's Ottawa engineering laboratory for analysis of the reams of data accumulated.

"All the work that could be done by the reconstruction and examining all the wreckage (at Shearwater) has been completed," board spokesman Jim Harris said Tuesday.

Shearwater's legacy includes the nine-metre mock-up of the jet's cockpit area, which sits in Hangar A, and over 700 crates of wreckage stored in Hangar J.

"That stays there until the investigation is completed and the public report is released (at an unknown date). And what happens after that, I don't know yet," Mr. Harris said.

There are also 14,272 pieces of wreckage, much of it already analysed, which are considered important and have been recorded in a database.

Over 5,000 experts have scrutinized the Sept. 2, 1998, crash that killed 229 people. They include board staff , its U.S. equivalent the National Transportation Safety Board, the Canadian military, the RCMP, the Swiss government, Swissair, its maintenance arm SR Techniques, aircraft manufacturer Boeing, engine maker Pratt and Whitney, Honeywell avionics and software firms.

The probe, which has cost over $50 million, began with limited information on what happened during the New York-to-Geneva flight, Vic Gerden, the investigator in charge, said Monday.

"All of this has been time-consuming and detailed work," the former military pilot said.

Mr. Gerden heads 12 group leaders conducting research projects on the flight's human performance and operations, aircraft and operations, weather, air traffic control, flight recorders and records.

Over 13,000 reports, records and other documents have been gathered and must be studied.

"You tend to use a broad brush when you investigate, and as you gather more and more information, obviously that narrows down," Mr. Harris said. "We still haven't got to the point where it's really narrow yet. You just take a look at some of the recommendations and safety advisories we've put out - they're pretty broad."

In its latest recommendations, the board advised Monday that the airline industry take a tougher approach to inflight smoke and fires, by training and equipping crew better, installing more smoke and fire detectors, and other means.

Future analysis will focus on the plane's wiring, the spread of the fire and other issues.

Some of the tests were on display Monday. One involved subjecting pieces of metal to extreme temperatures in order to match found pieces of wreckage and learn where the fire was centred and spread.

The safety board is also using custom-designed 3-D computer software to analyse the fire, which began above the cockpit area's drop ceiling.

The cause of the fire is unknown, and investigators have warned they may never pinpoint that. But when the board issues a final report, which could come after 2001, it will be closely scrutinized, Mr. Harris said.