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- HALIFAX (CP) -- An inflight gambling system that allowed passengers to
bet with their credit cards may have contributed to the crash of a Swissair
jet off Nova Scotia last month, officials suggested Thursday.
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- The system's electrical wiring and surrounding
portions of the cockpit ceiling show signs of significant heat damage,
investigators said, prompting the airline to order it turned off on 18
other planes.
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- "This is the first precautionary
measure that we've taken as a result of this crash," airline spokeswoman
Jackie Pash said from New York.
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- But both Pash and crash investigators
cautioned the cause has not yet been identified. The voluntary shutdown
will continue until more is known.
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- The gambling and entertainment systems,
made by Interactive Flight Technologies (IFT) Inc. of Phoenix, were installed
on a special certificate in business- and first-class beginning in January
1997.
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- Swissair was the first airline to carry
what IFT touts as "the world's most advanced interactive inflight
system." Authorities were trying to determine if it's the only one.
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- The touch-screen systems aboard 15 Swissair
MD-11s and three 747s enable high-paying passengers to select from up to
20 movies, 60 hours of music in 10 languages, several computer games and
casino-style gambling.
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- One industry analysis said the inflight
bingo, lotto, keno and poker, is "for commercial airline passengers
who think flying itself is not a big enough gamble." Players can bet
as much as $3,500 US on their credit cards.
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- "IFT, Swissair and the Swiss National
Lottery are jointly working together to provide an exciting gaming experience
for the passengers," the manufacturer said in its online announcement
of the Swissair deal.
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- An IFT spokesman did not return phone
calls Thursday.
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- Pilot Urs Zimmermann reported cockpit
smoke before Swissair Flight 111 went down near Peggy's Cove on Sept. 2.
All 229 people aboard were killed.
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- Chief investigator Vic Gerden of the
Transportation Safety Board of Canada said his people didn't know yet whether
controversial Kapton insulation was used on the entertainment system. Boeing
officials have said the aromatic polyimide tape insulation was used on
all the MD-11's general-purpose wiring.
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- Experts have warned such insulation can
be prone to electrical arcing and flash-fires that can jump between wire
bundles. It has effectively been banned in U.S. military aircraft.
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- Gerden said his investigators are researching
the issue, tracing the heat source and testing to determine at what temperature
such damage could occur.
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- He said the damage appears to have been
concentrated in the rear of the cockpit on either side of the wall separating
it from the cabin.
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- The material, among 77 tonnes (60 per
cent) of the airplane recovered from the ocean bottom, includes other wires
and metal panelling.
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- "It is difficult to describe,"
said Gerden. "The investigation is still wide open. This is just one
of a number of areas that we have to look at."
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- Voice recordings indicate the pilots
were still in the cockpit when the plane's black boxes quit six minutes
before the crash. Gerden has said there is no indication either man was
in any physical distress.
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- No evidence of smoke products -- soot,
carbon monoxide or cyanide gas -- has been found in passengers' remains.
Toxicology results from the two pilots had not yet been returned from a
laboratory in Oklahoma City on Thursday.
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- A fishing boat continues to recover debris
from the crash site.
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