By The Associated Press

Zurich, Switzerland - Swissair said Thursday it has filed a 'precautionary' complaint against the suppliers of an in-flight entertainment system that was installed on the MD-11 jet which crashed last year off the east coast of Canada.

Complaints against the supplier, Interactive Flight Technologies Inc., the company which installed the system, Hollingsead International and the company which certified it, Santa Barbara Aerospace, were filed by Swissair and other companies of its SAirGroup parent in Kloten, near Zurich, Swissair said.

"The complaints are a precautionary measure taken to ensure that the plaintiffs retain a right of recourse," it said. "This right would otherwise have lapsed one year after the accident."

Swissair Flight 111, bound from New York to Geneva, plunged into the Atlantic off Nova Scotia on Sept. 2, 1998. The pilots mentioned a strange smell and then complained of dense smoke shortly before the jet crashed.

Though the cause of Flight 111's fire remains unknown, investigators have learned enough to prompt several safety measures.

U.S. officials recommended all MD-11s be inspected for wiring problems, and they recently ordered airlines to replace Mylar insulation in nearly 700 airplanes, including MD-11s, over the next four years because it failed a new anti-flame test.

Last October, Swissair disconnected the high-tech in-flight entertainment system from its planes after questions arose about its possible role in the doomed jet's electrical problems.

The airline said the video-on-demand system for first and business class was being disconnected from a power supply network routed through the cockpit because it was nonessential and because that is the area where the investigation was concentrated.