It's unfortunate but unavoidable: Most
major tragedies just drift away from us. Doesn't matter if
it's one lost life or thousands, we tend to forget.
We're only human. We're bombarded by news around the
clock. Sometimes it's very bad news. Some cataclysmic
events, such as 9/11, stay in our collective consciousness
a long time, although in that instance the public's horror
was amplified by ever-rewound TV footage of the planes
slicing into the twin towers.
Generally we forget, as life plods and sputters along.
Even the last space-shuttle tragedy seems like old news;
it was actually just eight weeks ago.
Again, it sounds monstrous, but there was no graphic TV
footage, so it faded quickly. Likely more people remember
the O. J. Bronco chase.
Not everyone forgets, though. Airing tonight as a
commercial-free, extended episode of The Nature of
Things, the documentary The Investigation of
Swissair 111 (CBC, 8 p.m.) resurrects the Sept. 2,
1998, tragedy in which an airliner knifed into the
Atlantic Ocean, roughly eight kilometres off Peggy's Cove,
N.S. There were 229 people on board.
David Suzuki narrates the film, a co-production by
The Nature of Things and Swiss television, written and
assembled by Howard Green. It is a mesmerizing video diary
of the 4½-year investigation into the Swissair crash by
some very sharp Canadian investigators.
Much of the program takes place at CFB Shearwater, in
Halifax, where the remains of Flight 111 have been
assembled. The filming picks up approximately 15 months
after the crash and they are still finding remnants on the
ocean floor.
It's an eerie museum. There are rows, hundreds of them,
of boxes full of twisted metal bits, plastic and gnarled
balls of wire. There was also a Picasso in the cargo hold,
but it doesn't seem in evidence. The investigators
estimate there are two million pieces, all told.
The film is blocked methodically, starting with The
Flight, a re-enactment of the doomed journey. It's
revealed that the pilots smelled smoke in the cockpit
shortly after departing New York and decided to land in
Halifax. An emergency landing didn't seem necessary. They
went to dump fuel over the ocean and just never came back.
It's creepy to discover that while passengers were
getting their meal service the pilots had already donned
oxygen masks.
The recovery of Swissair 111 is agonizing to watch,
since all the evidence was on the ocean floor. The program
follows the investigation team, a group of world-class
engineers, computer experts and ex-pilots who abandoned
their lives for the duration of the project.
Their investigation is beyond painstaking. Their
single-minded intent is to find the cause of the crash.
They believe it was a fire. The flight recorder is
recovered but the last six minutes are missing.
The team has mostly reassembled the plane in a large
hangar, literally, on chicken wire. Most of the front
section is missing, which is a problem since that's where
they believe the fire started.
A massive ship is brought in to vacuum the ocean floor
for more bits; dozens of locals are paid to hand sort
through the muck. The group travels to Zurich to
scrutinize another Swissair jet.
The investigation, and the film, takes place over
months and years. One of the investigators, a genial
Maritime chap, has blond hair at the start and grey hair
when they finally wrap up.
The Investigation of Swissair 111 is a sober
chronicle of what happens after a tragedy, or what should
happen. The program is followed by a live half-hour
discussion panel, helmed by Suzuki and aviation experts
before a townhall of Halifax residents. Watch and learn.
John Doyle returns Tuesday.
jaryan@globeandmail.ca
