David Learmount/LONDON
Fire in the forward fuselage ceiling was the prime factor in bringing down the Swissair Boeing MD-11 off Canada's eastern seaboard on 2 September 1998. The investigation into the accident will continue, however, until at least the end of this year to determine the source and path of the fire, according to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSBC).
"Analysis of the fire pattern" and establishing its full extent is the aim of the continuing investigation, using cockpit and forward galley area wreckage reconstruction to determine it, says the TSBC.
The reconstruction is nearing completion. It has not been established yet what part - "if any" - the galley may have played in the fire, says the TSBC. In parallel with the reconstruction, using three galley jigs and the forward fuselage jig, the TSBC has been using photogrammetry and other recording methods to transfer the information gained so far into a three-dimensional computer model to determine where the fire started and how it spread.
"Investigators are continuing to seek means to distinguish between arced wires that either initiated or were burned in the fire," says the TSBC. "From the 20-arced wire segments that were found, 32 individual 'beads' are being examined and documented by various methodologies," it adds.
Meanwhile, says the TSBC, a specially instrumented MD-11 is being used to study the inflight airflow in the space above the ceiling in the forward section of the fuselage.
A separate part of the inquiry is looking into the "operational issues and human performance" factors. A summary of the flight's progress, published with the update report, reveals that the entire flight, from take-off at John F Kennedy airport, New York, to impact off Nova Scotia, took 1h 14min, and the time between the crew first reporting an abnormal smell in the flight deck to the crash was just over 20min.
Source: Flight International
