Program On Crash Of Swissair 111 May Be Flawed, But It Does Raise Questions

By Associate Editor Pete Combs

When WGBH in Boston sent me a pre-release copy of "NOVA Presents: Crash Of Flight 111," I ran over to the neighbor's apartment, borrowed a VHS, spun up the tape and heard this:

"I was thinking at the time these things are flying firetraps. I mean, how is it that we can put 200-plus people in an airplane with all this flammable material? This is the tinder waiting for the match."

I came up out of my seat. The comment was made by the one man the airline industry most loves to hate -- David Evans, editor of a weekly aviation safety newsletter. He went on to say, if commercial passenger aircraft were restaurants, they'd be shut down by the health department in a heartbeat.

Hoo boy, I thought. It's another hatchet job on aviation, the likes of which we've most recently seen from CBS Correspondent Bob Orr.

Then I watched the rest of the program.

I saw and heard a simulation of the crash of Swissair 111 on September 2, 1998. I heard dramatic music. I saw crying relatives grieve the 229 people lost on board the flight. And, buried in the show business, I heard some news.

To NOVA's credit, it wasn't buried too deep in the sentimental and highly calculated heart-tugs. The news was that metalized mylar, once thought flameproof, isn't. Silicone air duct components also thought fire-resistant aren't. In the 150 or so miles of wiring it takes to fly an MD-11, there could be up to 1500 cracks in wiring insulation -- cracks that, when exposed to the type of condensation typical of the high temperature differences between the cabin of an aircraft and the outside air, could cause electrical arcs. Those arcs can reach 12,000 degrees (F). Although brief in duration, they can be devastating in damaging aircraft systems.

NOVA is a program that bills itself a science show and, to reach aviation neophytes, the producers did what television does best. It grabs you by the collar and slaps you in the face to get your attention. Then it tells you what the producers want you to know. In the case of the CBS story on general aviation security, there was no meat. The NOVA piece, for all its show biz flaws, is filled with facts.

It's also filled with the kind of emotional manipulation that can make a pilot red-faced angry. Words like "flying firetraps" are the kind of words that are virtually guaranteed to scare passengers and threaten an already depressed airline industry. We all know that crews are trained in firefighting techniques, that sophisticated fire detection and prevention technology is employed in many parts of the aircraft and that, in the event of an emergency evacuation, the exits are here, here, here, here and here.

So it might be easy for an aviation enthusiast, industry worker or pilot to dismiss the story. The fact is, there is a preventable fire danger on board most of the world's civil fleet. The wiring. The metalized mylar. The lack of fire detection and suppression equipment in places nobody goes but the A&P -- when he has to.

The program also leaves the story there, as if to hold it out to the flying public and say, "Warning, Will Robinson, warning!" But the story doesn't end there.

The rest of the story is that it takes a lot of time and money to fix the problems raised in the NOVA program. Replacing the metalized mylar insulation could take hundreds of man-hours and cost millions of dollars. Developing, testing, installing and operating additional fire suppression equipment, as called for in the Canadian Transport Safety Board findings on the Swissair 111 tragedy will also take millions and millions of dollars. And if you haven't noticed lately, the airline industry -- along with manufacturers Boeing and Airbus, don't have a lot of spare change to throw around these days.

The NOVA program quotes one NTSB official as saying it took a tragedy of this type to point out the dangers of an in-flight fire to lawmakers and regulators. That's a sad truth. But motivation isn't the issue here. Methodology is the real problem.

If the NOVA story makes you squirm, makes you want to throw shoes at your television and cancel your PBS membership, so be it. We in this business have been battered, bruised and bewildered by events since 9/11. But we are an industry of can-do people. A clear issue has been raised. For once, let's examine the facts, disregard the panic-mongers and address these issues. We can find a better way to insulate wiring and detect faults in that insulation. We can find a replacement for metalized mylar products like MK, MPET and AN-26. We can install better fire protection and suppression systems on board aircraft. All aircraft.

Despite the economic issues we face, despite the uphill battle we have in educating the non-flying public, despite regulation that is often seen as ham-handed, we have a problem folks. And we need to figure out a solution.

Sadly, aircraft manufacturers don't seem willing to engage in this discussion. Aero-News contacted both Boeing and Airbus. We sent both companies copies of our initial story, which was published a week ago. We offered to play portions of the WGBH tape down the phone line. But so far, neither company has chosen to address what will most certainly become an industry hot-button issue in the coming week.

Why? Because on Monday, CNN and Fox News will report the NOVA story. ANN considers itself an aviation-friendly publication. Because it lacks aviation-specific knowledge and experience, the jacks-of-all-trades-masters-of-none general media are more likely to miss important information or center on emotional issues that play to the heart instead of the mind. Both Boeing and Airbus have apparently chosen to miss an opportunity to reach out with the facts to its most sympathetic and knowledgable audience. Now, the general media -- broadcast in particular -- will almost certainly pick up on the most sensational aspects of this story and the voice of industry reason will be shunted aside as an attempt to excuse what will be painted as the unexcusable.

One last thing. In spite of its flaws, I appreciated the NOVA story. Even though it scored about a four on the emotional manipulation scale of ten, It dealt with a timely and important issue in a (mostly) responsible fashion. Sure, go ahead and blow raspberries at the likes of Bob Orr. Be ready to blow some more this week when other media outlets get ahold of the story. But watch the NOVA piece. It's worth your time and will make you think.

(Associate Editor Pete Combs is an 1100 hour GA pilot. He's also a national and international broadcast journalist)

FMI: www.wgbh.org