- ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) -- Temperatures rose to 572 degrees F without
leaving traces of fire in the front part of Swissair Flight 111 before
it crashed, an in-house publication of the airline said today.
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- There still is no indication of the source
of the heat, said the publication, "News." It described as "pure
speculation" theories that a fire was caused by an electrical short
that ignited insulation material.
-
- The MD-11 airliner flying from New York
to Geneva crashed Sept. 2 off the coast of Canada, killing all 229 people
aboard. The crew reported smoke in the cockpit 16 minutes before the crash.
-
- Investigators, who have found that high
heat melted plastic in the first 40 feet of the plane, were surprised that
the heat was in the upper part of the plane and not below the cockpit floor,
where most of the wiring is located, the newsletter said.
-
- Previous reports have said the temperature
was high enough to damage plastic, but the newsletter gave the first indication
of just how hot it was.
-
- The newsletter, published for the staff
by the airline's parent SAirGroup, said the findings by Canadian investigators
were disclosed by Hans Ulrich Beyeler, Swissair head of technology, in
a speech to the Technical Society of Zurich.
-
- Last week, the airline announced it was
switching off a state-of-the-art entertainment system on its remaining
15 MD-11s and three Boeing 747s as a precautionary measure.
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- Swissair 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 is concentrated.
-
- The newsletter said 90 percent of the
wreckage has been recovered.
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