Swissair flight recorder found as British toll rises

DIVERS SEARCHING the murky, choppy seas off Canada's coast yesterday found one of two flight recorders from the aircraft that crashed into the sea last week, killing all 229 people on board. The device is likely to contain vital clues to the cause of the crash.

"The location of this recorder will no doubt aid divers in focusing on the area for the search of the second flight recorder," Vic Gerden, chief investigator of the Canadian Transportation Safety Board, told a news conference.

Mr Gerden said the recorder, which was found about five miles off Canada's Nova Scotia coast, would be sent to laboratories in Ottawa for examination by an international team.

Earlier yesterday, tapes of the conversations between the pilot and air-traffic control, were released that suggested an electrical failure was the cause of the problems. The tapes end six minutes before the crash, however, leaving a mystery over the final agony.

The pilot, Captain Urs Zimmermann, 50, radioed Moncton air-traffic control in New Brunswick at 10.14pm local time that he was in trouble, the tapes show. He said: "Swissair one-eleven [flight 111] is declaring Pan Pan Pan [the phrase used to indicate emergency]. We have smoke in the cockpit."

The pilot suggested returning to Boston, but air-traffic control told him Halifax was much closer.

He approached and then turned to lose altitude, since the airport was too close to allow him to descend safely in time, and to dump fuel over the sea to reduce his weight. All this suggests that even though the pilot's position was difficult, he still believed he had some time.

Minutes later, things took a turn for the worse. "We are declaring an emergency at time zero one two four," the pilot said at 10.24pm. "We are starting vent now," he added. It is thought this refers to dumping fuel. "We have to land immediately." At this time the aircraft was flying south- south east, away from the airport, out to sea. During the last few moments the pilot's words were hard to make out, apparently because he was wearing a smoke mask, Mr Gerden said.

There was no further conversation between air-traffic control and the aircraft, apparently because its radio was no longer working. At this time the aircraft disappeared from the secondary radar, which identifies the plane and gives its direction, because power to this system also failed. The aircraft continued on its course and then turned sharp right. It continued to loop, making a turn of 360 degrees, before crashing into the sea. Its final movements suggest the pilot had lost control.

There had been previous wiring problems with MD-11s, but Swissair had corrected them, a spokesman said. It seems to have been a wiring problem that led to the explosion of TWA 800 near Long Island two years ago.

One serious question that has been raised is whether the aircraft could have landed at Halifax had it not tried to lose altitude and fuel on a loop out to sea.

Although it exceeded the manufacturer's guideline weight for landing, it might have been successful - but it could have crashed nearer to Halifax, perhaps claiming more lives on the ground.

DNA testing continued on the human remains that have been found, and one body was identified as that of a French woman.But the medical team will take weeks, even months, to identify other victims, and some may never be identified. It was also reported yesterday that four more Britons were on board the flight than was originally thought, bringing the number of British victims to 11. Norman Depledge, his wife Caroline, their son Michael and daughter Jane, 28, were flying to Switzerland for a climbing holiday.

Relatives and friends of the victims attended services of memorial over the weekend, still heavily protected by Swissair and local police. Swissair has apparently spared no expense to make sure that the families are looked after, in sharp contrast to TWA, which was accused of acting insensitively over the 1996 crash.