Vic
Gerden, Transportation Safety Board chief investigator,
holds a section of highly-flammable insulation material
at a news conference in Halifax yesterday. The board
released the final report yesterday into the crash of
Swissair Flight 111 off the coast of Nova Scotia on
Sept. 2, 1998, claiming 229 lives. The board says a
spark from a wire in the ceiling caused a blaze on board
that spread quickly.
The
fire that led to the crash most likely started
from electrical arcing that began in wiring above
the ceiling on the right side of the cockpit.
Investigators found evidence of electrical arcing
in a cable associated with the plane's inflight
entertainment system, but were unable to pinpoint
it as the definitive cause of the crash.
The
arcing ignited flammable cover material on nearby
thermal acoustic insulation blankets and quickly
spread. The board concluded that certification
standards for material flammability were
inadequate.
The
board cleared the pilots of any wrongdoing.
Investigators determined the pilots wouldn't have
been able to land the plane safely even if they
had tried to do so immediately after declaring an
emergency.
The
board made 23 recommendations, nine of them new.
Four of them propose improvements to "the capture
and storage of flight data" on cockpit voice
recorders, flight data recorders, and cockpit
image recording systems.
- Transportation Safety Board
Planes still flying with deadly flaws, report
says Authorities slow to make upgrades, crash probe
finds
KELLY
TOUGHILL ATLANTIC CANADA BUREAU
HALIFAXThousands of airplanes are still flying around the
globe with the same deadly faults that led to the crash of a
Swissair jet off the Nova Scotia coast more than four years ago.
That was the disturbing subtext of a final report into the
crash delivered yesterday by the Transportation Safety Board. The
document shows aviation authorities have failed to follow several
key recommendations about preventing and stopping fires in the sky.
"The fire on board Swissair Flight 111 was a wake-up call for
the aviation industry," said chief investigator Vic Gerden.
"And like any wake-up call, it is bringing about change."
One grieving relative said yesterday the pace of change is
not quick enough.
"We heard a lot of very good recommendations from the
Transportation Safety Board today," said Mark Fetherolf, whose
16-year-old daughter Tara died in the crash.
"But there is absolutely nothing in law that requires the
Federal Aviation Administration or other regulatory agencies to
adopt any of them."
Investigators painted a horrifying picture yesterday of the
flight that went down off Peggy's Cove on Sept. 2, 1998, killing all
229 people on board.
A tiny spark from a wire connected to an electronic game
system in the first-class cabin started a fire in the ceiling, then
raced through highly flammable insulation that burned as easily as
newspaper in a fireplace.
There were no fire detection systems in the ceiling, no
alarms or smoke detectors to alert the crew about the fire, and most
of the smoke was initially sucked out of the plane.
By the time the pilot and co-pilot realized something was
wrong, key systems on the plane were failing and the cockpit ceiling
was starting to collapse, according to the report.
The board has made 23 recommendations to improve aircraft
safety because of problems uncovered by the investigation. Several
important recommendations have been followed.
For instance, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
ordered the kind of game system used on Swissair removed from every
aircraft flown in the United States.
It also ordered airlines to remove the kind of highly
flammable insulation used on the Swissair plane. Now, only about 700
planes flying in the U.S. still have the insulation, and none in
Canada.
But other important recommendations have been ignored, or
delayed.
For instance, even though the exact kind of insulation found
in Swissair 111 has mostly been removed from planes, similar
insulation is still used that investigators say burns far too fast.
The Federal Aviation Administration has flatly rejected a
Transportation Safety Board recommendation that new, tougher
flammability standards be set for all materials used in airplanes.
`The wound of losing
Tara is something that will not heal. It is one we'll have to
live with forever.'
Mark Fetherolf, father of crash victim
"The TSB remains concerned
about the flammability of certain cover materials on insulation
blankets presently in use," reads the report.
One of the very first recommendations was that planes have a
separate power supply for cockpit recorders and flight data
recorders. Because the electrical system failed on Swissair 111,
both recorders stopped operating in the final six minutes, robbing
investigators of crucial information about what caused the crash
and how to prevent similar accidents in the future.
The Transportation Safety Board recommended changes to the
system four years ago, but new regulations are still pending in both
Canada and the United States.
Finally, investigators recommended more than two years ago
that fire detection systems be installed in key areas of the
airplane, such as the cockpit ceiling where the fire began on
Swissair 111.
Only Swissair, which has since gone out of business, followed
the recommendation immediately. Although regulatory agencies agree
it's a good idea, they have yet to order it done.
The investigation did provide a clear answer to one of the
most troubling questions of the crash: could pilots have done
anything to save themselves and their passengers? The answer
delivered yesterday was no. Even if the pilots had known about the
fire, they didn't have time to get the plane to safety, Gerden said.
"Because of the rapid progression of the fire, they would not
have been able to complete a safe landing in Halifax," he said.
Investigators spent more than four years and $57 million
probing the crash of the flight bound for Geneva from New York. They
scooped more than 2 million pieces of the shattered craft from the
rocky ocean floor of St. Margaret's Bay, and put it back together
piece by tiny piece to figure out what went wrong.
Relatives of the 229 men, women and children who died in the
crash gathered for briefings on the final report yesterday in
Halifax, Paris, Geneva, Los Angeles and New York City.
Miles Gerety, whose older brother was among the victims, said
he was stunned by the detailed work of the investigators, and
chilled to realize how quickly a plane can go down in flames because
of a tiny spark.
"It was shocking to me, that the insulation is not only not
fireproof, but extremely flammable," he said.
"It was shocking to realize planes have no fire detection
(systems), no fire suppression and no fire proofing. I am hopeful
that the Transportation Safety Board's recommendations will be
followed because they are very important, and they are global."
Several relatives said they took comfort from returning to
the city that cared for them so tenderly during the tragedy four
years ago.
Margie Topf, whose sister died in the crash, arrived in
Halifax yesterday wearing a heart-shaped pendant made from a
polished piece of granite from Peggy's Cove.
"This way my sister is always close to my heart, always with
me," she said, clutching the pendant. "For me, with the final
report, there was closure."
That wasn't true for everyone.
"For me, there will never be closure," Fetherolf said.
"There are phases and chapters, and this report is a
milestone. But the wound of losing Tara is something that will not
heal. It is one we'll have to live with forever."
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