Communiqués

Investigation Update A98H0003

Swissair Flight 111

(Halifax, Nova Scotia - 21 October 1998) - The deep-sea heavy-lift operation to retrieve the remaining material from Swissair Flight 111 is continuing. Vic Gerden, the investigator-in-charge of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) investigation into this accident, said, "although the operation has been slowed by weather and sea conditions, approximately 25 per cent of the aircraft has now been recovered and it is our intent to recover as much of the material as possible."

Mr. Gerden was very appreciative of the way in which the recovery operation, involving the RCMP, the Canadian Coast Guard, the Canadian Forces, the Chief Medical Examiner for Nova Scotia, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the United States, the TSB and Le Groupe Océan, has been working, despite the delays caused by the weather. He said, "they have been working as a team with one goal in mind - to recover human remains as quickly as possible and to recover wreckage as soon as possible - so that investigators can determine why Flight 111 crashed and identify any safety deficiencies that may be involved."

So far, during the recovery phase:

• Engine No. 2, the middle engine located in the tail, along with its Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC), was recovered. The FADEC has been taken by a TSB investigator to the manufacturer's facility in the United States for analysis. The FADEC chip is providing data, but it will be some time before we get a complete analysis of that data.
• One of the under-wing engines has also been recovered.
• A quantity of electronic circuit boards, some of which include non-volatile memory (NVM) chips, have been recovered. The chips have been sent to the manufacturer for analysis.
• Considerable quantities of wire and wiring bundles have been recovered. Some of the wiring comes from the forward portion of the aircraft and will be analysed in more detail.
• Portions of the fuselage have been recovered, including portions of the forward section and the cockpit.
• The left main landing gear has recently been recovered. The recovered landing gear, including the right main and the nose gear that were recovered in September, indicate that the landing gear was in the retracted position at the time of impact.

The crews are out on the "SEA SORCERESS" today and there is every indication that the lift is proceeding well. In fact, the third engine was brought up on the first lift late this afternoon.

The material, when it is lifted from the bottom, is deposited on the barge "ATL 2401" where it is sorted. Any human remains are immediately taken to refrigerated containers. The wreckage is then sorted quickly and any pieces that require special processing, such as NVM, are placed in special containers. The rest of the wreckage is then placed in cargo nets and loaded aboard Coast Guard ship "EARL GREY" and taken to Canadian Forces Base Shearwater. Another crew further cleans and sorts the material on shore. The wreckage is then taken to a facility for tagging and examination.

Many RCMP, Canadian Forces personnel and TSB investigators are involved in this operation to preserve evidence. Analysis of some of the specialized parts is being undertaken, but closer examination and analysis of the wreckage will be done later, once the heavy-lift operation is completed.

"The primary focus now is getting the aircraft debris up from the seabed. Weather conditions are still the major limiting factor in this phase of the recovery operation," said Gerden. "There has been some shifting of the debris pile on the ocean floor which underlies the need to complete this lift as soon as practicable. There are volunteer groups on shore that are ready to pick up any debris that may drift from the operation area."

To date, the Canadian Forces, the Canadian Coast Guard, the RCMP, the United States Navy, the TSB, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the Nova Scotia Chief Medical Examiner, the NTSB and a legion of volunteers that make up the Emergency Measures Organization, have been involved in the recovery effort, under difficult and demanding circumstances. It is hoped that this recovery effort will bring some comfort to the next-of-kin and contribute to the timely identification of potential safety problems.

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