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NTSB suggests inspections
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January 11, 1999: 6:42 p.m. ET
Says airlines should inspect wiring in all MD-11 planes in wake of Swissair crash
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WASHINGTON (CNNfn) - The National Transportation Safety Board on Monday recommended that airlines inspect all MD-11 airplanes for cockpit wiring problems after signs of heat damage and electrical arcing were found in the wreckage of Swissair flight 111.
The Swissair jet crashed last September off the coast of Nova Scotia.
Canadian authorities still have not determined the cause of the crash, but have discovered considerable heat damage and signs of arcing in the ceiling areas of the wall separating the cockpit from the rest of the plane, the NTSB said.
Federal Aviation Administration officials, who would impose such a requirement, said Monday that even before receiving the NTSB recommendation, the FAA had started to develop rulemaking actions that address the wiring concerns. "These proposed actions are on a fast track, and we expect to issue them very shortly," the FAA said in a written statement.
The FAA has 90 days to respond to the NTSB recommendation.
All 215 passengers and 14 crew members were killed in the crash, which occurred about an hour after the plane departed JFK International Airport in New York for Geneva, Switzerland. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is in charge of the accident investigation, but the NTSB is participating in accordance with an international aviation convention.
About 85 percent of the airplanes wreckage has been recovered to date, NTSB Chairman Jim Hall wrote in a letter to FAA Administrator Jane Garvey. Hall wrote that wiring from the cockpit overhead area exhibited heat damage and burned insulation, and several wires showed evidence of arcing.
"Although some of the wires exhibiting arching characteristics are from the entertainment system that is unique to the Swissair MD-11 fleet, others have been identified as original MD-11 wires."
In December, the FAA ordered airlines to inspect doors after the Swissair investigation revealed wire chafing problems. Swissair also has conducted voluntary inspections of its MD-11 airplanes, but those inspections have not uncovered serious discrepencies, Hall wrote.
Hall wrote that the FAA should require "on an expedited basis" inspections of all MD-11 airplanes for wiring problems in and around the cockpit overhead circuit breaker panel and the avionics circuit breaker panel.
A spokesman from Boeing Co. (BA) was not immediately available to comment on the NTSB recommendation. Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas, the maker of the MD-11, in 1997.
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