SEPTEMBER 03, 07:56 EDT
No Survivors in Swissair Jet Crash
By DAVE HOWLAND
Associated Press Writer
PEGGYS COVE, Nova
Scotia (AP) - A flotilla of
coast guard and fishing
boats searching in the
darkness early today found
only bodies and debris from
a Swissair jetliner that
crashed off Nova Scotia,
killing all 229 people
aboard.
Swissair said there were no survivors from Flight 111
from New York to Geneva, which plunged into the
ocean Wednesday night after its pilot reported smoke in
the cockpit and attempted an emergency landing at
Halifax International Airport.
''About 30 miles south of the airport, the aircraft
disappeared from radar screens,'' said airline
spokeswoman Beatrice Tschanz in Zurich, Switzerland.
At dawn, rescuers had recovered 18 bodies from the
turbulent waters a few miles off Peggys Cove, a small
fishing village and tourist retreat.
Philippe Bruggisser, the airline's chief
executive officer, told reporters in Zurich the
flight headed out over the Atlantic without
incident but within minutes, the Swiss pilot
and co-pilot decided to head back after
reporting problems on the McDonnell
Douglas MD-11 plane.
The passengers were thought to be mostly
Swiss, Tschanz said. It was not immediately
known how many Americans were on board.
One of the crew members was an American from
Swissair partner Delta, Tschanz said. She didn't identify
him.
In Atlanta, Delta spokesman Bill Berry said the ''best
information available'' was that 53 Delta passengers
were on the flight, which the two airlines shared in a
partnership.
President Clinton was
informed about the plane's
disappearance before
departing Moscow, where he
had attended a summit with
Russian President Boris
Yeltsin. He was updated
again during a flight to
Northern Ireland.
''We have no indication that
terrorism was involved,'' P.J.
Crowley, a White House
spokesman, said.
The plane left New York's Kennedy International Airport
at 8:17 p.m. with 215 passengers - including two
infants - and 14 crew, said Philippe Roy, a Geneva
airport spokesman.
Before the plane went down slightly more than an hour
later, residents said they heard loud sputtering noises
from an aircraft passing overhead and then a thundering
crash. Dozens of ambulances were dispatched to the
scene.
''The motors were still going, but it was the
worst-sounding deep groan that I've ever
heard,'' said witness Claudia Zinck-Gilroy.
Searchlights from coast guard cutters, fishing
boats, helicopters and planes illuminated the
area, said witnesses, who reported seeing an
oil slick, life preservers and other debris from
the downed aircraft spread over a wide area of
ocean.
The three-engine plane dumped fuel over nearby St.
Margaret's Bay before crashing, The Canadian Press
quoted an airport worker as saying.
Debris from the aircraft was found off Clam Island and
other islets between Peggys Cove and Blandford, about
20 miles southwest of Halifax.
Lt. Cmdr. Mike Considine of the Search and
Rescue Center in Halifax said rescue crews
were searching for the aircraft seven miles off
Peggys Cove. Local fishermen were called to
the area because they are familiar with the
waters.
There were four rescue planes and four
helicopters, as well as a Canadian navy ship,
said Canadian navy spokeswoman Tracy
Simoneau.
''They are reporting that they have located debris, but
they are unsure if it's from the aircraft. They also report
an oil slick and a strong smell of oil. They have not
found the fuselage,'' Simoneau said.
She said civilian rescuers were at the scene within
minutes of the crash.
At the airports in New York
and Geneva, grief
counselors were on hand
for relatives of the crash
victims. A special lounge
was set up in the Delta Air
Lines terminal at Kennedy
Airport.
A piece of paper attached to
the Geneva airport's arrivals
board, which at first said the flight was ''delayed,''
directed all those concerned with the flight to the
information desk.
In Washington, National Transportation Safety Board
spokesman Matt Furman said the U.S. agency sent a
team of 10 people to Canada this morning.
It was the first crash of a Swissair plane since Oct. 7,
1979, when one of its DC-8s overshot the runway in
Athens, Greece, while attempting to land and burst into
flames. Fourteen people were killed.
Speaking to reporters at the Geneva airport, Georges
Schorderet, the chief financial officer of parent company
SAirGroup, said the plane was put into service in August
1991 and was overhauled in August and September last
year. It had been checked as all are before takeoff, he
added.
''This airplane was in perfect working order,'' Schorderet
said. |
