|
|
Crash of Flight 111
|
|
|
|
Program Overview
|
|
|
Note: This program contains information that may be upsetting
to students. Please preview it to determine its appropriateness for
your classroom.
NOVA follows the four-and-a-half year, $39 million investigation
into why Swissair Flight 111 crashed on September 2, 1998, killing
all 229 passengers.
The program:
-
reviews the series of events that led up to the crash of the
McDonnell-Douglas MD-11 plane in the waters off Nova Scotia.
-
chronicles how scientists used evidence to establish how and why
the crash occurred.
-
follows the salvage and sorting of hundreds of thousands of
pounds of wreckage—such as metal pieces, wires, burnt
rugs, and other airplane debris—from 55 meters (180 feet) below the ocean surface.
-
shows the recovery of the black box and the subsequent finding
that it did not record the final six minutes of flight.
-
details the reassembly of the plane in a hangar in Halifax and
the creation of a three-dimensional computer model of the
aircraft.
-
demonstrates a variety of tests that investigators conducted,
including exposing metal to different levels of heat to
determine color changes and performing materials flammability
tests.
-
shows how investigators came to reconstruct the series of events
that led up to the crash—a damaged wire in the
entertainment system gave rise to an electrical arc-generated
fire that spread out of sight in the plane's attic area.
-
reviews the recommendations made by the Transportation Safety
Board of Canada upon completion of its investigation.
-
notes that the Federal Aviation Administration has given
airlines five years to implement the most important
recommendation resulting from the investigation—replacing
the type of flammable insulation materials found in Swissair
Flight 111.
Taping Rights: Can be used up to one year after the program
is taped off the air.
|
|
