Air Emergency (2003–…): Season 1, Episode 6 - Fire in the Sky - full transcript
Swissair flight 111 suffered a fire in-flight and crashed while attempting an emergency landing in Halifax in 1998.
In 1998, off Canada's east coast
a modern passenger jet
run by one of the world's best airlines,
catches fire at 33,000 feet.
Swissair 111, we are dumping fuel now
and we must...
In its final 6 minutes communications from the cockpit cease
"It's burning already"
Then the plane plummets into the ocean.
229 people are dead
What caused the fire is a mystery
Many of the vessels reported to the Canadian navy
were standing by at the scene
so they are finding bodies making repeated requests
for more body bags
Now, after one of the largest investigations in aviation history,
the complete story behind the loss of Swissair Flight 111
can finally be told.
It's a wake up call for the entire airline instustry
to ensure that what happened aboard to Swissair
flight 111 would never happen again
September 2nd, 1998,
Swissair Flight 111 prepares to depart
New York's JFK International Airport,
en route to Geneva, Switzerland.
The aircraft was
a Macdonald Douglass 11, or MD 11,
a model first developed in 1986
as a highly automated modern replacement for the antiquated DC-10.
It was considered one of the most reliable jumbo jets in the skies
and Swissair pilots are among the world’s best-trained.
Okay, have to start check list. Engine Anti-Ice.
Not Required
Roger, not required.
Swissair 111's pilots were
Captain Urs Zimmerman, and First Officer Stephan Loew.
SwissAir 111 hold short, 3 1 left.
Zimmerman encouraged an easy-going atmosphere in the cockpit
but he was also known for his by-the-book precision.
When not flying he trains new pilots
for Switzerland's national airline.
Before take off checklist
Flaps and slats, flaps set 15 degrees
Set to 15
On board were 215 passengers, 12 crew and 2 pilots.
Most passengers are French, American, or Swiss.
Among them is 23 year old Stephanie Shaw
on her way home to her parents in Geneva
Stephanie was blessed in many ways,
she was physically very attractive
she was an intelligent girl
the reason she went to New York
was that she had been invited to become
a member of the world economic forum
which is based in Geneva
and she wanted to have this trip
before she join.
She was a darling,
absolute darling.
Swissair 111 Heavy clear for take-off.
Clear for take-off, roger, Swissair 111.
In the spirit of safety, Swissair pilots push the throttles forward together,
ensuring no single pilot can botch a take-off.
V1, VR, V2
Swissair Flight 111 lifted off and made her way north-east,
toward the open Atlantic.
For the first 15 minutes after take-off,
there was no communication from Swissair 111.
It's an unusual small detail that
would later baffle investigators.
Atlantic air traffic is handled by a remote station
in the small town of Moncton in Canada
Almost half an hour after take-off,
the first communication to Moncton
from Captain Zimmerman
Moncton Centre Swissair 111 heavy
Good evening level 330
Swissair 111 heavy Moncton Centre. Good Evening
Reports of occasional light turbulence at all levels.
Moncton Swissair.
It's a perfectly normal beginning
to a transAtlantic crossing
In First-class, Swiss air passengers
are among the first in the world
to have a personalised in-flight
entertainment network
Though, now common, the system is
an innovation in 1998
passengers can choose their own movie,
browse the internet and gamble
They evaluated the market and they thought
that introducing modern in-flight entertainment
system combined with a gambling system,
so the passengers can use
their credit card and gamble
during long range flights
would make them more attractive.
This luxury would be the source of controversy to come.
Do you smell something?
Yeah. What is that?
Go have a look, I'll take the controls
Roger, you have control
First officer Loew investigates the area
near the airconditioner vent.
Smoke traces from airconditioning are common on commercial jets.
I don't see anything there.
There is nothing up there now
You hailed, Captain?
We are sure we smelled smoke few
seconds ago.
Do you smell anything?
I smell it too, yeah.
Could you smell it in the cabin before you came in?
No, definitely not.
They agree the airconditioner was the likely culprit.
See, I don't smell it anymore
Airconditioning, is it? Yes.
Please close it, thanks.
Behind the sealed panel,
the pilots could not see that the problem was getting worse.
Less than 45 seconds after smoke disappeared
in the cockpit of Swissair 111, it's back.
Zimmerman followed Swissair procedure.
He makes plans to divert to
the nearest place to land
Find the closest place to land Stefan
We?ll need the Nav charts
from the library
Also, weather data for the area.
Boston is close
It's not doing well at all out there
Zimmerman radioed air traffic control in Moncton, New Brunswick.
Moncton Centre, Swissair 111 heavy -good evening.
United nine two zero heavy.
Moncton Centre.
The controller dealt with another aircraft
before responding to Swissair.
Other aircraft calling - say again.
Swissair 111 heavy is declaring
Pan Pan Pan
We have smoke in the cockpit.
Request, uh, immediate return to a convenient place, I guess, Boston.
Pan Pan Pan is an international term used to notify air traffic control
of an urgent situation, one step below declaring Mayday
You say to Boston you want to go?
I guess Boston we need for some weather
there, we are starting right turn here
Swissair one 111 heavy.
Swissair 111, Roger. And descend to flight level 3 1 0.
3 1 0, 3 1 0 Swiss Air 111 heavy
This is the first interview with one of
the air traffic controllers in Moncton
My name is Bill Pickrell and on
September 2nd 1998
I was one of two Halifax terminal
controllers working the evening shift
The pan in any kind of special condition
is usually dealt with as an emergency
and this, in fact, was dealt with that way.
The aircraft was immediately given priority
and the high level supervisor initiated a call
to the rescue coordination centre
Pickrell's colleague determined that Swissair 111
is just 66 miles from Halifax
and 300 from Boston
But pilot Zimmerman had chosen
an airport he knows
Lot of times when you're having a problem
you'd rather be dealing with an issue
were you much more familiar with,
the airport
because that relieves stress.
That was his initial problem.
He's looking up there and he's trying to think,
"Now I got smoke here, lets see
where is the closest place I can go to
to talk with a Swissair mechanic? Boston."
Swissair 111, Centre.
Swissair 111 heavy, ho ahead.
Would you prefer to go into Halifax?
Urs, we better put the mask on.
Uh, stand-by.
Realising their location,
Zimmerman decides Halifax is the best option
Affirmative for Swissair 111 heavy.
We prefer Halifax from our position.
Swissair 111 heavy roger proceed
direct to Halifax descend now to
flight level 2 9 0
Level 2 9 0 to Halifax, Swissair 111 heavy
The controller signed off with another aircraft.
His jurisdiction is high-altitude flights.
As Swissair was on descent to Halifax,
he hands over responsibility
to terminal controller Bill Pickrell
At that point everything was normal
I gave pilot an initial descent
and he requested to level of
in an intermediate altitude to get
the cabin in order for the landing
which took a minute or two
to pack away dinner trays
and things like that.
It was an indication to me,
well his situation was unsual
that they were considering it as
an emergency at that time.
Watch your speed, Stephan.
Don't descend too fast. Roger.
Yes, Captain
We've smoke in the cockpit here
have the cabin crew prepare for landng
we are descending down to Halifax
in about 20 minutes
and we're about to start the checklist here
Yes, Captain Zimmerman.
Zimmerman has two check lists for smoke in the cockpit.
To complete both would take twenty minutes.
This was Swissair company policy.
In the meantime, Loew continued the descent into Halifax.
Stephan, you handle the radio
while I go through this check list.
119,2 for the Swissair 111 heavy.
Roger
Swissair 111 was now at about 25,000 feet.
Pickrell advises them to descend to 3000,
but first officer Loew said he'd rather fly at 8000,
until the passenger cabin was cleared.
His decision to remain high underscores
the sense of control in the cockpit.
From my point of view it gave all initial appearances
that it should be fairly straightforward operation
assuming that everything happen normally
the aircraft would record a minimum of handling
to lead them into Halifax
Swissair 111, you can descend to 3
or level off to an immediate altitude if you wish,
just advise.
But Pickrell is concerned the plane not coming down fast enough.
It appeared that the aircraft might
have been a little bit high
and I wanted to ensure that the pilots
were aware that of how far
they were from the airport,
how many miles they had to fly
so that they could judge their own descent
to make their decision
of what they want to do
Roger. At the time we descend to 8000 feet
We are anytime clear to 3000.
Okay. Can I vector you, uh,
to set up for runway zero six
at Halifax
Roger, vector for 645 Swissair 111 heavy
Swissair 111 roger, turn left, heading 0 3 0.
Left heading 0 3 0 for the Swissair 111 heavy
Captain Zimmerman needs information for the unfamiliar airfield,
but his flight bag is out of reach.
He summones the flight attendant to help.
You hailed me, Captain?
For two minutes now
I need the flight bag there, it has the approach charts for Halifax.
Get back to your crew.
Yes, Captain.
The chief flight attendant notified passengers
that the flight is being diverted
there is not panic, the plane is flying normally
and there is not sign of smoke in the cabin
Swissair 111, the localiser frequency
is one zero niner decimal niner.
You got 30 miles to fly to the threshold
Uh, we need more than 30 miles...
But still at more than 20,000 feet,
Swissair 111 is too high to make a landing in just thirty miles.
HALIFAX ATC: Swissair 111 roger,
the frequency is one zero niner decimal niner for the localiser
Ok, roger, one zero niner point niner,
and we are turning left heading north Swissair 111 heavy
We got to dump fuel
Agreed.
So far, communications from Swissair had been calm.
Still, Moncton Centre initiates emergency efforts at Halifax airport.
Preparing ground crews for the landing of Swissair 111,
Pickrell seeks more information from the pilots.
Swissair 111, if you have time
can I have the number of souls on board
an your fuel on board please
for emergency services
Roger, at this time fuel on board is 2 3 0 tones
we have to dump some fuel.
may we do that in this area
during descent
Pickrell was surprised to learn so late
that Swissair 111 needs to dump fuel.
At that point it became
more of a complicated situation.
In fact every transmition after that
it became more and more complicated
Pickrell considered his options for a safe place,
that wouldn't take the aircraft too far from Halifax.
He decides to direct the plane over St Margarets bay
about thirty miles from the airport.
Dumping fuel is standard procedure.
A fully fuelled passenger jet is too heavy, and could break up on landing.
But co-pilot Loew wonders if, given their situation,
they might forgo the regulations.
They want us to turn south?
Should we just forget about dumping
and just land
No, dump it.
Okay we are able for a left or right turn to the south to dump.
I initiated the vector back toward
St.Margaters bay to steer them
in that direction. It indicated to me that
again it wasn't a critical situation
on board and that in fact they did
had time to be able to go back
and dump his fuel over the water.
Swissair one-eleven, uh, roger.
Turn left heading of 2 0 0 and
advise me when you are ready to dump
to be 10 miles before you are off the coast.
You will still be within about twenty five miles of the airport.
Roger, we are turning left, 2 0 0
In that case we are going to descend to only 10,000 feet
in order to dump the fuel
Roger, maintain 10000 and advise me
when you are over the water
it will be very shortly
-Roger, are you need emergency checklist
for A/C smoke? -Yes
Swissair 111 say again please
Ah, sorry it was not for you.
Swissair 111 was asking internally
Okay.
Airspeed is decreasing below 306,
level off speed here?
Just fly the plane as easy Stephan
Swissair 111, continue left heading 1 8 0
you'll be off the cost in about 15 miles
Left heading one eight zero.
Roger Swissair 111
and maintaining at 10000 feet
Roger.
Cabin bus off
Cabin Bus off, roger.
The cabin bus switch knocks out all the lighting in the cabin.
It is an indication for the passengers that something is wrong,
but hardly alarming.
Ladies and Gentlemen.
We have temporarily lost the lights in the cabin.
Please remain calm. The crew will come round with flashlights
to assist in landing.
Despite a cockpit filled with smoke,
there's still no trace in the passenger cabin.
You will be staying within about 35-40 miles
of the airport if you have to get
back to the airport
Okay, that's fine with us.
Please tell us when we can start
to dump the fuel
Suddenly, the MD11 sents out a warning
that the smoke is a sign of a more serious problem.
Autopilot disconnect!
Copy that, autopilot disconnect, Swissair 111...
The fire has now reached the plane's
autopilot and this is just the beginning
11 thousand and 9 thousand feet!
Swissair 111,
you can block between five and twelve thousand if you wish.
One by one, systems all over the aircraft failed.
In seconds the calm in the cockpit dissolved.
We are between 12 and 5000 feet.
We are declaring emergency now Swissair 111
at time 01:24
Then the two pilots spoke simultaneously.
Combined with other distractions in the control room,
Pickrell was unable to hear a critical transmission -
Loew's declaration that they must land immediately.
We are dumping fuel now. We must land immediately!
Swissair 111, just a couple more miles
I'll be right with you
Roger.
And we are declaring emergency now Swissair 111.
Missing this transmition is a moment Bill Peakrell
relives today
I am not sure that is a feeling
that you can adequately describe.
I recall reviewing the events of that night a thousand times
to determine if there was something additionally that I could have done,
or if there was some mistake that I might have made,
or was there any way that I contributed to this.
Eventually, I was able to come to the point
of realization and then
there wasn't anything that I could have done.
Everything that I could of was done.
30 seconds after declaring an emergency,
the pilots of Swissair 111 faced an inferno.
All my screens are down!
Flying on stand-by instruments, maintaining 300
Swissair 111, you are cleared
to commence your fuel dump
on that track and advise me
when the dump is complete.
Swissair 111 check you are cleared
to start the fuel dump
There was no further communication from the aircraft.
Six minutes later,
residents of Peggy's Cove heard a devastating explosion.
No-one knows what have happened to 229 people
after 360 seconds of silence.
It was probably one of the most
helpless feeling that any individual
can have not being able to do anything
but just sit and watch the target and hope
that it will turn back to the airport
and of course it didn't.
The following morning,
rescue teams glimpsed the terrible
remains of Swissair 111.
only one human body is discovered intact.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada
launches what it would become
the largest disaster investigation
in the nation's history.
They only knew Swissair 111 experienced a cockpit fire,
but what caused it remains a mystery.
This accident was a challenging one to investigate,
and initially of course we had to recover
the aircraft from 55 meters of water
around 185 feet and of course it was also in many pieces,
as it turns out couple of million pieces
So that was the initial challenge.
And then after that, of course, when you have so many pieces,
you need to determine
which are the relevant ones
and what they are telling you about
what happened and why.
The TSB worked in a complex multi stage plan
First, divers were deployed to survey the wreckage.
They discover that the plane was smashed into millions of pieces.
But as the autumn weather worsened, the risks to divers increased.
At this rate, the salvage would take years to complete.
Stage two. With help from the United States Navy,
Remote Operated Vehicles began a more detailed search.
The ROVs helped investigators survey the site.
But the question remained - how to recover tiny pieces of twisted metal
from the bottom of the sea.
Out of wreckage the first breakthrough emerges,
Swissair 111 black boxes.
Recordings of cockpit and computer data
tell investigators that everything on the plane
was working perfectly
until the last few minutes.
When the cre declared the PAN PAN PAN
that they had smoke in the cockpit,
after going through all of this
parameters, we found no anomalies,
or no problems in any of
that flight data suggested
that there was a problem with the aircraft
So, this led us to believe
that the crew had a relatively
operational aircraft
aside from the smoke in the cockpit
that they noted
everything else appeared to be working fine
and as the were making their plan
to descent the aircraft
they experienced a series of systems failures
that were in rapid succession and expanantion
Autopilot disconnect Swissair 111, we must fly manually now.
Mike Poole's CVR team then faced a serious setback.
The last six minutes on both flight recorders are missing.
You're losing systems rapidly on the aeroplane in that 90 second period
that things are happening very fast.
And the last thing we knew about was the two recorders went off-line.
So the fire has breached the lines,
breached the sources to those
recorders and has stopped them.
With the failure of the black boxes,
investigators were no closer to learning how, or where,
the fire started on Swissair 111.
Stage Three. Barges were deployed to scour the seabed for evidence.
One by one, sad remnants of the aeroplane reached the surface.
One of the engines
then the landing gear.
These were among the largest pieces of Swissair 111 to be recovered.
The rest were mere fragments,
dredged up
in a painfully slow process.
Stage Four. A nearby military hangar provided a makeshift lab
for the growing team of forensic investigators.
Among them are representitives from
American NTSB, Boeing, Swissair
and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Pieces of Swissair 111 arrive by the truckload,
they are organised into various categories for analysis.
Soon the hangar was stacked to capacity
with the biggest jigsaw puzzle in NTB's history.
How did a seemingly small cockpit fire
suddenly turned to catastrophe.
The team sorted through
nearly 250km of wiring retrieved
from the wreckage
of Swissair 111.
Here, the first real clue
Evidence of fire caused by
electrical arcing.
Scorch marks on metal revealed that the source of the fire
was in the back of the cockpit directly behind the 1st Officer.
By examining the aircraft's wiring plans,
leeds investigators to a likely suspect.
The entertainment system in 1st class
The system had some major deficiencies,
it was getting very hot, drew a lot of power
and thereby, for example, raising the cabin temperature considerably,
cause it was always running.
They didn't install a simple off switch.
Neither they installed a proper cooling sytem
to cool the system down.
The TSB's investigators finally think they have a breakthrough,
they'd been seeking
When Captain Zimmerman threw the Cabin Bus switch,
all power to the cabin should have been switched off.
But the entertainment system remained on, overheating.
Most pilots would say,
If I pushed the Cabin Bus Switch,
it's gonna turn off things behind the cockpit
It'll isolate that electrically, so I don't have to worry about that,
and I can just concentrate on those things
might affect me flying the airplane
Well, it turns out that this switch was kind of bypassed in this case
for this entertainment system.
Swissair immediately disabled the entertainment systems
on the rest of its fleet.
But the TSB concludes that the mystery
is not solved.
By the time that cabin switch
was turned off
the fire was well underway,
so that had no real bearing
on the initiation or propagation of a fire
in the Swissair 111 aircraft.
Investigators determined the problem with the entertainment system alone
could not have to have brought down Swissair 111.
The search for answers must continued.
Stage Five, the TSB decides to reconstruct the MD-11
from the wreckage.
A wire-frame mock-up they call the jig,
provided a spine for placing tiny pieces back where they once belonged.
The reconstruction reveales that the hidden
fire spread with alarming speed,
from the cockpit, back into the first class galleys.
Some metal showed heat damage from temperatures
as high as 600 degrees centigrade.
As the investigation continued,
some argued that the actions of the pilots
may have contributed to the disaster.
Some experts charged that Zimmerman
and Loew's by-the-book approach,
may have cost them their lives.
Some operators emphasized
in the very early stage,
land as soon as possible,
and then if you have time go into
the checklist,
others said yes the checklist,
and in the end of the checklist
if that doen't help then land
as soon as possible.
Pretty contradictory for basic
flight instructions.
where student pilots learn in very early stage
that whenever you have smoke
you have a fire and a fire means
land as soon as possible.
-Emergency Light Switch On.
-Emergency Light Switch On.
Unfortunately, in this case, the way the check list was written,
it didn't identify that "Now start towards a divert"
It started more on, "Let's try to see if we can solve the problem."
So now all of a sudden
you are taking on a problem
that just kind of crept up on you.
You weren't expecting it.
But the TSB consideres the time line.
Investigators
determined that Swissair 111
would not have made Halifax airport under any circumstances.
There just wasn't enough time.
In our calculation we showed that starting at
the ideal descent point from 33000 feet
which was at about 10:14 p.m. that night,
it would take some 13 minutes
to get the airplane to the ground
which would take us to 10:27 p.m.
By 10:24 the systems in the aircraft
were starting to deteriorate
So, we believe that under these circumstances,
the crew would not have been able to successfully land the aeroplane
under those conditions
with the amound of time they had.
Whatever caused the fire on Swissair, it happened at a lethal speed.
The mystery lingers.
A year passes, then another ambitious operation begins.
The TSB hires a sophisticated Dutch salvage ship,
Queen of the Netherlands.
The vessel has a gigantic vacuum system
capable of dredging even
the tiniest pieces of Swissair 141
from the ocean floor.
A mixture of seawater, silt and aircraft
was pumped into the ship's central hold.
This cargo was pumped into
a specially constructed reservoir on shore nearby.
When the water draines away,
investigators find another million pieces of the aircraft.
Any one of them may have held the clue to
what caused the catastrophic fire.
The tedious sorting once again resumes
and goes on for weeks.
Finally, after fifteen months, they found what they'd been seeking,
one faulty wire.
We looked at all of the possible sources of heat
that might start a fire in that area.
And in this instance we did discover a wire that arced in that way,
and right next to it
was some very flammable material called
metalized polyethylene terephthalate covering material
that covers the insulation blankets.
The insulatation blankets which lined the MD-11,
are common on commercial airlines worldwide.
They've passed the industry's flammability tests
that require materials to self-extinguish
after a reasonable period of time.
The investigation now took an abrupt turn.
Instead of seeking the cause of the fire,
the TSB focuses on the flammable materials that fuelled it.
The thermo-acoustical material that was in this aircraft
was very flammable.
even though it passed a test that
does sustain and propagate flame.
So, this investigation did focus on the flammability of materials
and the requirement to reaccess the criteria
that is used to certify materials.
Not just thermal acoustical insulation blanket materials,
but also other materials that goes into aircraft
much of it in hidden areas.
Now they had their answer.
A wire arced in a closed space behind the cockpit.
The arc ignited the insulation which in turn lit other materials,
such as foams and plastics.
The pilots could not sense how ickly the fire intensified.
But fourteen minutes after they declared Pan Pan Pan,
the fire disabled all electronics in the cockpit.
The black boxes went dead.
A forensic examination also shed light
on the desperate final minutes in the cockpit
Loew was in his seat, Captain Zimmerman was not.
He was likely fighting the fire and probably dead before impact.
What is known is that
the first officer was in his seat
whether he was unconscious
or conscious maybe had severe degree burns
on the skin.
We know that the captain was not in his seat
so very likely he was trying to fight the fire
that the checklists we found molted together
the paged indicates that were used
to fight the fire
At 10:30 Halifax time, Loew shut down engine two.
Investigators determine that he probably received a warning
the engine was on fire.
Chillingly, it proved that Loew was alive a minute before impact.
They could not determine whether the passengers were aware of the fire.
At least until the very final moment.
There were traces found of seude and smoke
extending as much far to the business class
ovehead area whether the passengers
had smelled the smoke, we don't know
Dna analysis showed that they had
no resitute in their body.
The aircraft hit the water with a force of 350 Gs.
The TSB spents 4 and a half years
and 140 million US dollars
the largest air disaster investigation in Canada's history.
The conclusion is one powerful message.
Flamable materials do not belong
on commercial aircraft.
The rate of progression in this airplane
I think surpriced us
and surprise others and
that's why we emphasize again
the importance of raising the bar
on the flammability standards
for materials used in aeroplanes.
Ian Shaw waited 4 years for the report telling
what small flaw took the life of his daughter.
But the truth has not extinguished his anger
at Swissair
There has to be accountability.
If you are involved in wrongdoing
you must be held accountable and
you must declare your sense of responsibility,
otherwise you are hiding and you are hiding
in this case behind the flight to Switzerland.
I think it's unbelievable.
In the aftermath, Swissair decided to remove the flammable insulate
from it's entire fleet.
They also made changes to checklist procedure
reducing response time in a cockpit smoke emergency
But plagued with financial problems
the mighty airline
shocks the industry
when it goes bankrupt in October, 2001.
The flammable insulation that sets Swissair
ablaze remains in 2/3 of commercial airlines today,
but not for very much longer.
The metalized polyethylene terephthalate
material has been essentially banned
from aircraft and the citeria to certify that
kind of material for use in airplanes
has been work done it,
has not been put into law as yet
but we look forward for that to be done
so the criteria is more stringent.
The US federal aviation administration
has given a deadline of 2005
to remove the material from all commercial
aircraft.
This major overhaul aims to ensure that the Swissair tragedy
would not been repeated.
For Ian Shaw losing his daughter so suddenly and violently
has left a permanent emotional scar.
He left his wife and his wealth behind in Geneva
and now runs a modest restaurant in Nova Scotia
in view of the sea where his daughter died.
Why would I come here to this particular point
of Nova Scotia lot of people have said
"Yes, we fully understand you, you want to be close to
your daughter and the point where the plane crashed"
That is not part of my being here,
Swissair ripped out of me
any possibility of proximity to my daughter,
I found a comfort in the awareness
of the presence of the eternal ocean which is
being going backwards and forwards
for many many thousands and millions of years.
I came here because I had to.
I can't give a fully rational
declaration to you of why I came here,
I can only say to you that
I am in the right place for the wrong reasons
Subtitles: Dimitrios Priftis
[email protected]
a modern passenger jet
run by one of the world's best airlines,
catches fire at 33,000 feet.
Swissair 111, we are dumping fuel now
and we must...
In its final 6 minutes communications from the cockpit cease
"It's burning already"
Then the plane plummets into the ocean.
229 people are dead
What caused the fire is a mystery
Many of the vessels reported to the Canadian navy
were standing by at the scene
so they are finding bodies making repeated requests
for more body bags
Now, after one of the largest investigations in aviation history,
the complete story behind the loss of Swissair Flight 111
can finally be told.
It's a wake up call for the entire airline instustry
to ensure that what happened aboard to Swissair
flight 111 would never happen again
September 2nd, 1998,
Swissair Flight 111 prepares to depart
New York's JFK International Airport,
en route to Geneva, Switzerland.
The aircraft was
a Macdonald Douglass 11, or MD 11,
a model first developed in 1986
as a highly automated modern replacement for the antiquated DC-10.
It was considered one of the most reliable jumbo jets in the skies
and Swissair pilots are among the world’s best-trained.
Okay, have to start check list. Engine Anti-Ice.
Not Required
Roger, not required.
Swissair 111's pilots were
Captain Urs Zimmerman, and First Officer Stephan Loew.
SwissAir 111 hold short, 3 1 left.
Zimmerman encouraged an easy-going atmosphere in the cockpit
but he was also known for his by-the-book precision.
When not flying he trains new pilots
for Switzerland's national airline.
Before take off checklist
Flaps and slats, flaps set 15 degrees
Set to 15
On board were 215 passengers, 12 crew and 2 pilots.
Most passengers are French, American, or Swiss.
Among them is 23 year old Stephanie Shaw
on her way home to her parents in Geneva
Stephanie was blessed in many ways,
she was physically very attractive
she was an intelligent girl
the reason she went to New York
was that she had been invited to become
a member of the world economic forum
which is based in Geneva
and she wanted to have this trip
before she join.
She was a darling,
absolute darling.
Swissair 111 Heavy clear for take-off.
Clear for take-off, roger, Swissair 111.
In the spirit of safety, Swissair pilots push the throttles forward together,
ensuring no single pilot can botch a take-off.
V1, VR, V2
Swissair Flight 111 lifted off and made her way north-east,
toward the open Atlantic.
For the first 15 minutes after take-off,
there was no communication from Swissair 111.
It's an unusual small detail that
would later baffle investigators.
Atlantic air traffic is handled by a remote station
in the small town of Moncton in Canada
Almost half an hour after take-off,
the first communication to Moncton
from Captain Zimmerman
Moncton Centre Swissair 111 heavy
Good evening level 330
Swissair 111 heavy Moncton Centre. Good Evening
Reports of occasional light turbulence at all levels.
Moncton Swissair.
It's a perfectly normal beginning
to a transAtlantic crossing
In First-class, Swiss air passengers
are among the first in the world
to have a personalised in-flight
entertainment network
Though, now common, the system is
an innovation in 1998
passengers can choose their own movie,
browse the internet and gamble
They evaluated the market and they thought
that introducing modern in-flight entertainment
system combined with a gambling system,
so the passengers can use
their credit card and gamble
during long range flights
would make them more attractive.
This luxury would be the source of controversy to come.
Do you smell something?
Yeah. What is that?
Go have a look, I'll take the controls
Roger, you have control
First officer Loew investigates the area
near the airconditioner vent.
Smoke traces from airconditioning are common on commercial jets.
I don't see anything there.
There is nothing up there now
You hailed, Captain?
We are sure we smelled smoke few
seconds ago.
Do you smell anything?
I smell it too, yeah.
Could you smell it in the cabin before you came in?
No, definitely not.
They agree the airconditioner was the likely culprit.
See, I don't smell it anymore
Airconditioning, is it? Yes.
Please close it, thanks.
Behind the sealed panel,
the pilots could not see that the problem was getting worse.
Less than 45 seconds after smoke disappeared
in the cockpit of Swissair 111, it's back.
Zimmerman followed Swissair procedure.
He makes plans to divert to
the nearest place to land
Find the closest place to land Stefan
We?ll need the Nav charts
from the library
Also, weather data for the area.
Boston is close
It's not doing well at all out there
Zimmerman radioed air traffic control in Moncton, New Brunswick.
Moncton Centre, Swissair 111 heavy -good evening.
United nine two zero heavy.
Moncton Centre.
The controller dealt with another aircraft
before responding to Swissair.
Other aircraft calling - say again.
Swissair 111 heavy is declaring
Pan Pan Pan
We have smoke in the cockpit.
Request, uh, immediate return to a convenient place, I guess, Boston.
Pan Pan Pan is an international term used to notify air traffic control
of an urgent situation, one step below declaring Mayday
You say to Boston you want to go?
I guess Boston we need for some weather
there, we are starting right turn here
Swissair one 111 heavy.
Swissair 111, Roger. And descend to flight level 3 1 0.
3 1 0, 3 1 0 Swiss Air 111 heavy
This is the first interview with one of
the air traffic controllers in Moncton
My name is Bill Pickrell and on
September 2nd 1998
I was one of two Halifax terminal
controllers working the evening shift
The pan in any kind of special condition
is usually dealt with as an emergency
and this, in fact, was dealt with that way.
The aircraft was immediately given priority
and the high level supervisor initiated a call
to the rescue coordination centre
Pickrell's colleague determined that Swissair 111
is just 66 miles from Halifax
and 300 from Boston
But pilot Zimmerman had chosen
an airport he knows
Lot of times when you're having a problem
you'd rather be dealing with an issue
were you much more familiar with,
the airport
because that relieves stress.
That was his initial problem.
He's looking up there and he's trying to think,
"Now I got smoke here, lets see
where is the closest place I can go to
to talk with a Swissair mechanic? Boston."
Swissair 111, Centre.
Swissair 111 heavy, ho ahead.
Would you prefer to go into Halifax?
Urs, we better put the mask on.
Uh, stand-by.
Realising their location,
Zimmerman decides Halifax is the best option
Affirmative for Swissair 111 heavy.
We prefer Halifax from our position.
Swissair 111 heavy roger proceed
direct to Halifax descend now to
flight level 2 9 0
Level 2 9 0 to Halifax, Swissair 111 heavy
The controller signed off with another aircraft.
His jurisdiction is high-altitude flights.
As Swissair was on descent to Halifax,
he hands over responsibility
to terminal controller Bill Pickrell
At that point everything was normal
I gave pilot an initial descent
and he requested to level of
in an intermediate altitude to get
the cabin in order for the landing
which took a minute or two
to pack away dinner trays
and things like that.
It was an indication to me,
well his situation was unsual
that they were considering it as
an emergency at that time.
Watch your speed, Stephan.
Don't descend too fast. Roger.
Yes, Captain
We've smoke in the cockpit here
have the cabin crew prepare for landng
we are descending down to Halifax
in about 20 minutes
and we're about to start the checklist here
Yes, Captain Zimmerman.
Zimmerman has two check lists for smoke in the cockpit.
To complete both would take twenty minutes.
This was Swissair company policy.
In the meantime, Loew continued the descent into Halifax.
Stephan, you handle the radio
while I go through this check list.
119,2 for the Swissair 111 heavy.
Roger
Swissair 111 was now at about 25,000 feet.
Pickrell advises them to descend to 3000,
but first officer Loew said he'd rather fly at 8000,
until the passenger cabin was cleared.
His decision to remain high underscores
the sense of control in the cockpit.
From my point of view it gave all initial appearances
that it should be fairly straightforward operation
assuming that everything happen normally
the aircraft would record a minimum of handling
to lead them into Halifax
Swissair 111, you can descend to 3
or level off to an immediate altitude if you wish,
just advise.
But Pickrell is concerned the plane not coming down fast enough.
It appeared that the aircraft might
have been a little bit high
and I wanted to ensure that the pilots
were aware that of how far
they were from the airport,
how many miles they had to fly
so that they could judge their own descent
to make their decision
of what they want to do
Roger. At the time we descend to 8000 feet
We are anytime clear to 3000.
Okay. Can I vector you, uh,
to set up for runway zero six
at Halifax
Roger, vector for 645 Swissair 111 heavy
Swissair 111 roger, turn left, heading 0 3 0.
Left heading 0 3 0 for the Swissair 111 heavy
Captain Zimmerman needs information for the unfamiliar airfield,
but his flight bag is out of reach.
He summones the flight attendant to help.
You hailed me, Captain?
For two minutes now
I need the flight bag there, it has the approach charts for Halifax.
Get back to your crew.
Yes, Captain.
The chief flight attendant notified passengers
that the flight is being diverted
there is not panic, the plane is flying normally
and there is not sign of smoke in the cabin
Swissair 111, the localiser frequency
is one zero niner decimal niner.
You got 30 miles to fly to the threshold
Uh, we need more than 30 miles...
But still at more than 20,000 feet,
Swissair 111 is too high to make a landing in just thirty miles.
HALIFAX ATC: Swissair 111 roger,
the frequency is one zero niner decimal niner for the localiser
Ok, roger, one zero niner point niner,
and we are turning left heading north Swissair 111 heavy
We got to dump fuel
Agreed.
So far, communications from Swissair had been calm.
Still, Moncton Centre initiates emergency efforts at Halifax airport.
Preparing ground crews for the landing of Swissair 111,
Pickrell seeks more information from the pilots.
Swissair 111, if you have time
can I have the number of souls on board
an your fuel on board please
for emergency services
Roger, at this time fuel on board is 2 3 0 tones
we have to dump some fuel.
may we do that in this area
during descent
Pickrell was surprised to learn so late
that Swissair 111 needs to dump fuel.
At that point it became
more of a complicated situation.
In fact every transmition after that
it became more and more complicated
Pickrell considered his options for a safe place,
that wouldn't take the aircraft too far from Halifax.
He decides to direct the plane over St Margarets bay
about thirty miles from the airport.
Dumping fuel is standard procedure.
A fully fuelled passenger jet is too heavy, and could break up on landing.
But co-pilot Loew wonders if, given their situation,
they might forgo the regulations.
They want us to turn south?
Should we just forget about dumping
and just land
No, dump it.
Okay we are able for a left or right turn to the south to dump.
I initiated the vector back toward
St.Margaters bay to steer them
in that direction. It indicated to me that
again it wasn't a critical situation
on board and that in fact they did
had time to be able to go back
and dump his fuel over the water.
Swissair one-eleven, uh, roger.
Turn left heading of 2 0 0 and
advise me when you are ready to dump
to be 10 miles before you are off the coast.
You will still be within about twenty five miles of the airport.
Roger, we are turning left, 2 0 0
In that case we are going to descend to only 10,000 feet
in order to dump the fuel
Roger, maintain 10000 and advise me
when you are over the water
it will be very shortly
-Roger, are you need emergency checklist
for A/C smoke? -Yes
Swissair 111 say again please
Ah, sorry it was not for you.
Swissair 111 was asking internally
Okay.
Airspeed is decreasing below 306,
level off speed here?
Just fly the plane as easy Stephan
Swissair 111, continue left heading 1 8 0
you'll be off the cost in about 15 miles
Left heading one eight zero.
Roger Swissair 111
and maintaining at 10000 feet
Roger.
Cabin bus off
Cabin Bus off, roger.
The cabin bus switch knocks out all the lighting in the cabin.
It is an indication for the passengers that something is wrong,
but hardly alarming.
Ladies and Gentlemen.
We have temporarily lost the lights in the cabin.
Please remain calm. The crew will come round with flashlights
to assist in landing.
Despite a cockpit filled with smoke,
there's still no trace in the passenger cabin.
You will be staying within about 35-40 miles
of the airport if you have to get
back to the airport
Okay, that's fine with us.
Please tell us when we can start
to dump the fuel
Suddenly, the MD11 sents out a warning
that the smoke is a sign of a more serious problem.
Autopilot disconnect!
Copy that, autopilot disconnect, Swissair 111...
The fire has now reached the plane's
autopilot and this is just the beginning
11 thousand and 9 thousand feet!
Swissair 111,
you can block between five and twelve thousand if you wish.
One by one, systems all over the aircraft failed.
In seconds the calm in the cockpit dissolved.
We are between 12 and 5000 feet.
We are declaring emergency now Swissair 111
at time 01:24
Then the two pilots spoke simultaneously.
Combined with other distractions in the control room,
Pickrell was unable to hear a critical transmission -
Loew's declaration that they must land immediately.
We are dumping fuel now. We must land immediately!
Swissair 111, just a couple more miles
I'll be right with you
Roger.
And we are declaring emergency now Swissair 111.
Missing this transmition is a moment Bill Peakrell
relives today
I am not sure that is a feeling
that you can adequately describe.
I recall reviewing the events of that night a thousand times
to determine if there was something additionally that I could have done,
or if there was some mistake that I might have made,
or was there any way that I contributed to this.
Eventually, I was able to come to the point
of realization and then
there wasn't anything that I could have done.
Everything that I could of was done.
30 seconds after declaring an emergency,
the pilots of Swissair 111 faced an inferno.
All my screens are down!
Flying on stand-by instruments, maintaining 300
Swissair 111, you are cleared
to commence your fuel dump
on that track and advise me
when the dump is complete.
Swissair 111 check you are cleared
to start the fuel dump
There was no further communication from the aircraft.
Six minutes later,
residents of Peggy's Cove heard a devastating explosion.
No-one knows what have happened to 229 people
after 360 seconds of silence.
It was probably one of the most
helpless feeling that any individual
can have not being able to do anything
but just sit and watch the target and hope
that it will turn back to the airport
and of course it didn't.
The following morning,
rescue teams glimpsed the terrible
remains of Swissair 111.
only one human body is discovered intact.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada
launches what it would become
the largest disaster investigation
in the nation's history.
They only knew Swissair 111 experienced a cockpit fire,
but what caused it remains a mystery.
This accident was a challenging one to investigate,
and initially of course we had to recover
the aircraft from 55 meters of water
around 185 feet and of course it was also in many pieces,
as it turns out couple of million pieces
So that was the initial challenge.
And then after that, of course, when you have so many pieces,
you need to determine
which are the relevant ones
and what they are telling you about
what happened and why.
The TSB worked in a complex multi stage plan
First, divers were deployed to survey the wreckage.
They discover that the plane was smashed into millions of pieces.
But as the autumn weather worsened, the risks to divers increased.
At this rate, the salvage would take years to complete.
Stage two. With help from the United States Navy,
Remote Operated Vehicles began a more detailed search.
The ROVs helped investigators survey the site.
But the question remained - how to recover tiny pieces of twisted metal
from the bottom of the sea.
Out of wreckage the first breakthrough emerges,
Swissair 111 black boxes.
Recordings of cockpit and computer data
tell investigators that everything on the plane
was working perfectly
until the last few minutes.
When the cre declared the PAN PAN PAN
that they had smoke in the cockpit,
after going through all of this
parameters, we found no anomalies,
or no problems in any of
that flight data suggested
that there was a problem with the aircraft
So, this led us to believe
that the crew had a relatively
operational aircraft
aside from the smoke in the cockpit
that they noted
everything else appeared to be working fine
and as the were making their plan
to descent the aircraft
they experienced a series of systems failures
that were in rapid succession and expanantion
Autopilot disconnect Swissair 111, we must fly manually now.
Mike Poole's CVR team then faced a serious setback.
The last six minutes on both flight recorders are missing.
You're losing systems rapidly on the aeroplane in that 90 second period
that things are happening very fast.
And the last thing we knew about was the two recorders went off-line.
So the fire has breached the lines,
breached the sources to those
recorders and has stopped them.
With the failure of the black boxes,
investigators were no closer to learning how, or where,
the fire started on Swissair 111.
Stage Three. Barges were deployed to scour the seabed for evidence.
One by one, sad remnants of the aeroplane reached the surface.
One of the engines
then the landing gear.
These were among the largest pieces of Swissair 111 to be recovered.
The rest were mere fragments,
dredged up
in a painfully slow process.
Stage Four. A nearby military hangar provided a makeshift lab
for the growing team of forensic investigators.
Among them are representitives from
American NTSB, Boeing, Swissair
and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Pieces of Swissair 111 arrive by the truckload,
they are organised into various categories for analysis.
Soon the hangar was stacked to capacity
with the biggest jigsaw puzzle in NTB's history.
How did a seemingly small cockpit fire
suddenly turned to catastrophe.
The team sorted through
nearly 250km of wiring retrieved
from the wreckage
of Swissair 111.
Here, the first real clue
Evidence of fire caused by
electrical arcing.
Scorch marks on metal revealed that the source of the fire
was in the back of the cockpit directly behind the 1st Officer.
By examining the aircraft's wiring plans,
leeds investigators to a likely suspect.
The entertainment system in 1st class
The system had some major deficiencies,
it was getting very hot, drew a lot of power
and thereby, for example, raising the cabin temperature considerably,
cause it was always running.
They didn't install a simple off switch.
Neither they installed a proper cooling sytem
to cool the system down.
The TSB's investigators finally think they have a breakthrough,
they'd been seeking
When Captain Zimmerman threw the Cabin Bus switch,
all power to the cabin should have been switched off.
But the entertainment system remained on, overheating.
Most pilots would say,
If I pushed the Cabin Bus Switch,
it's gonna turn off things behind the cockpit
It'll isolate that electrically, so I don't have to worry about that,
and I can just concentrate on those things
might affect me flying the airplane
Well, it turns out that this switch was kind of bypassed in this case
for this entertainment system.
Swissair immediately disabled the entertainment systems
on the rest of its fleet.
But the TSB concludes that the mystery
is not solved.
By the time that cabin switch
was turned off
the fire was well underway,
so that had no real bearing
on the initiation or propagation of a fire
in the Swissair 111 aircraft.
Investigators determined the problem with the entertainment system alone
could not have to have brought down Swissair 111.
The search for answers must continued.
Stage Five, the TSB decides to reconstruct the MD-11
from the wreckage.
A wire-frame mock-up they call the jig,
provided a spine for placing tiny pieces back where they once belonged.
The reconstruction reveales that the hidden
fire spread with alarming speed,
from the cockpit, back into the first class galleys.
Some metal showed heat damage from temperatures
as high as 600 degrees centigrade.
As the investigation continued,
some argued that the actions of the pilots
may have contributed to the disaster.
Some experts charged that Zimmerman
and Loew's by-the-book approach,
may have cost them their lives.
Some operators emphasized
in the very early stage,
land as soon as possible,
and then if you have time go into
the checklist,
others said yes the checklist,
and in the end of the checklist
if that doen't help then land
as soon as possible.
Pretty contradictory for basic
flight instructions.
where student pilots learn in very early stage
that whenever you have smoke
you have a fire and a fire means
land as soon as possible.
-Emergency Light Switch On.
-Emergency Light Switch On.
Unfortunately, in this case, the way the check list was written,
it didn't identify that "Now start towards a divert"
It started more on, "Let's try to see if we can solve the problem."
So now all of a sudden
you are taking on a problem
that just kind of crept up on you.
You weren't expecting it.
But the TSB consideres the time line.
Investigators
determined that Swissair 111
would not have made Halifax airport under any circumstances.
There just wasn't enough time.
In our calculation we showed that starting at
the ideal descent point from 33000 feet
which was at about 10:14 p.m. that night,
it would take some 13 minutes
to get the airplane to the ground
which would take us to 10:27 p.m.
By 10:24 the systems in the aircraft
were starting to deteriorate
So, we believe that under these circumstances,
the crew would not have been able to successfully land the aeroplane
under those conditions
with the amound of time they had.
Whatever caused the fire on Swissair, it happened at a lethal speed.
The mystery lingers.
A year passes, then another ambitious operation begins.
The TSB hires a sophisticated Dutch salvage ship,
Queen of the Netherlands.
The vessel has a gigantic vacuum system
capable of dredging even
the tiniest pieces of Swissair 141
from the ocean floor.
A mixture of seawater, silt and aircraft
was pumped into the ship's central hold.
This cargo was pumped into
a specially constructed reservoir on shore nearby.
When the water draines away,
investigators find another million pieces of the aircraft.
Any one of them may have held the clue to
what caused the catastrophic fire.
The tedious sorting once again resumes
and goes on for weeks.
Finally, after fifteen months, they found what they'd been seeking,
one faulty wire.
We looked at all of the possible sources of heat
that might start a fire in that area.
And in this instance we did discover a wire that arced in that way,
and right next to it
was some very flammable material called
metalized polyethylene terephthalate covering material
that covers the insulation blankets.
The insulatation blankets which lined the MD-11,
are common on commercial airlines worldwide.
They've passed the industry's flammability tests
that require materials to self-extinguish
after a reasonable period of time.
The investigation now took an abrupt turn.
Instead of seeking the cause of the fire,
the TSB focuses on the flammable materials that fuelled it.
The thermo-acoustical material that was in this aircraft
was very flammable.
even though it passed a test that
does sustain and propagate flame.
So, this investigation did focus on the flammability of materials
and the requirement to reaccess the criteria
that is used to certify materials.
Not just thermal acoustical insulation blanket materials,
but also other materials that goes into aircraft
much of it in hidden areas.
Now they had their answer.
A wire arced in a closed space behind the cockpit.
The arc ignited the insulation which in turn lit other materials,
such as foams and plastics.
The pilots could not sense how ickly the fire intensified.
But fourteen minutes after they declared Pan Pan Pan,
the fire disabled all electronics in the cockpit.
The black boxes went dead.
A forensic examination also shed light
on the desperate final minutes in the cockpit
Loew was in his seat, Captain Zimmerman was not.
He was likely fighting the fire and probably dead before impact.
What is known is that
the first officer was in his seat
whether he was unconscious
or conscious maybe had severe degree burns
on the skin.
We know that the captain was not in his seat
so very likely he was trying to fight the fire
that the checklists we found molted together
the paged indicates that were used
to fight the fire
At 10:30 Halifax time, Loew shut down engine two.
Investigators determine that he probably received a warning
the engine was on fire.
Chillingly, it proved that Loew was alive a minute before impact.
They could not determine whether the passengers were aware of the fire.
At least until the very final moment.
There were traces found of seude and smoke
extending as much far to the business class
ovehead area whether the passengers
had smelled the smoke, we don't know
Dna analysis showed that they had
no resitute in their body.
The aircraft hit the water with a force of 350 Gs.
The TSB spents 4 and a half years
and 140 million US dollars
the largest air disaster investigation in Canada's history.
The conclusion is one powerful message.
Flamable materials do not belong
on commercial aircraft.
The rate of progression in this airplane
I think surpriced us
and surprise others and
that's why we emphasize again
the importance of raising the bar
on the flammability standards
for materials used in aeroplanes.
Ian Shaw waited 4 years for the report telling
what small flaw took the life of his daughter.
But the truth has not extinguished his anger
at Swissair
There has to be accountability.
If you are involved in wrongdoing
you must be held accountable and
you must declare your sense of responsibility,
otherwise you are hiding and you are hiding
in this case behind the flight to Switzerland.
I think it's unbelievable.
In the aftermath, Swissair decided to remove the flammable insulate
from it's entire fleet.
They also made changes to checklist procedure
reducing response time in a cockpit smoke emergency
But plagued with financial problems
the mighty airline
shocks the industry
when it goes bankrupt in October, 2001.
The flammable insulation that sets Swissair
ablaze remains in 2/3 of commercial airlines today,
but not for very much longer.
The metalized polyethylene terephthalate
material has been essentially banned
from aircraft and the citeria to certify that
kind of material for use in airplanes
has been work done it,
has not been put into law as yet
but we look forward for that to be done
so the criteria is more stringent.
The US federal aviation administration
has given a deadline of 2005
to remove the material from all commercial
aircraft.
This major overhaul aims to ensure that the Swissair tragedy
would not been repeated.
For Ian Shaw losing his daughter so suddenly and violently
has left a permanent emotional scar.
He left his wife and his wealth behind in Geneva
and now runs a modest restaurant in Nova Scotia
in view of the sea where his daughter died.
Why would I come here to this particular point
of Nova Scotia lot of people have said
"Yes, we fully understand you, you want to be close to
your daughter and the point where the plane crashed"
That is not part of my being here,
Swissair ripped out of me
any possibility of proximity to my daughter,
I found a comfort in the awareness
of the presence of the eternal ocean which is
being going backwards and forwards
for many many thousands and millions of years.
I came here because I had to.
I can't give a fully rational
declaration to you of why I came here,
I can only say to you that
I am in the right place for the wrong reasons
Subtitles: Dimitrios Priftis
[email protected]