The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) wants to conduct test flights with a Swissair Boeing MD-11 with its inflight entertainment system activated as part of the continuing probe into the 2 September, 1998, crash of the same craft, off Nova Scotia, the TSB confirms.
Tests are intended to determine the airflow patterns in the flight deck ceiling area, says the TSB, to find out the effect which airflow may have had on the propagation of fire in materials above the ceiling. No additional flammability trials are needed on the materials themselves (wiring insulation and the fuselage thermal/acoustic insulation blanket), says the TSB, because the flame propagation properties of these are now well known. It had been hoped that the tests would have begun in mid-November, but they are expected "as soon as possible", says the TSB. Delays are being caused by the difficulties in co-ordinating the resources of the TSB, Boeing and Swissair, the TSB says.
Source: Flight International
