Word: swissair
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PILOT DISCORD ON NO. 111? When Swissair flight 111 crashed off Nova Scotia last fall, many experts were surprised that the pilots turned out to sea to dump fuel--a standard emergency tack but one that may have given the plane's suspected wiring problem enough time to force the craft down. Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that a preliminary summary of a cockpit recording showed that co-pilot Stefan Lowe suggested landing immediately but was overruled repeatedly by Captain Urs Zimmermann, who focused on the procedural checklist...
...intensely competitive market for business- and first-class flyers, Swissair for the past year had pampered such customers with premium video and gambling screens at their seats, touting "an unprecedented degree of freedom and choice." But for the passengers of Flight 111, that in-seat entertainment center may have been a deadly luxury. Last week Swissair announced it was shutting down the system on its 18 jumbo jets after Canadian investigators dredged up evidence of suspicious heat damage near the unit on the Geneva-bound MD-11 that crashed off the Nova Scotia coast Sept. 2, killing all 229 people...
...Swissair was the pioneer in installing such devices aboard its planes, with the first one taking off in January 1997. Each seat has a video screen that pops out of the armrest like a tray table. It can be used to play video games, select music and watch an assortment of movies. In addition, there are three types of gambling available--overseen by the Swiss National Lottery--including slots and keno. Losses are capped at $200, while winnings can go as high...
Interactive Flight Technologies, the company based in Phoenix, Ariz., that developed the Swissair equipment, boasts that it builds the "world's most advanced interactive-flight system." Yet the complex and costly devices ($2 million or more per plane) require a web of wires from each seat to central computers, which generate a lot of heat. The question is whether the system--approved by the Federal Aviation Administration but installed only aboard Swissair jets--could have generated enough heat to trigger the disaster. Salvage crews have pulled up evidence of heat damage above the ceiling that straddles the cockpit and first...
Interactive Flight Technologies, a financially troubled company with a new board and chairman (former Secretary of State Alexander Haig was once a director), has said it wants out of the in-flight-entertainment business, a desire repeated at the company's annual meeting a day after Swissair's announcement. Company executives say the airlines want cheaper, simpler systems, and the market has been depressed because U.S. regulations bar gambling on flights that take off or land in the U.S. That means no passengers on Swissair 111, which left from New York City's Kennedy airport, were swiping their credit cards...