Swissair 111 ATC Tape Recordings to be Released

The soundtrack for one of Canada's worst aviation disasters is now to be made available to the public. Transcripts of the air traffic control recordings of the Swissair 111 accident's last few minutes have always been available, however Transport Canada has steadfastly refused to release the audio itself, saying it contained personal information. Earlier the Transportation Safety Board and NAV Canada had fought a Freedom of Information request from the Canadian Press all the way to the Supreme Court. However the government departments were stymied when the High Court refused leave to appeal the lower court's decision to release the tapes. The situation is now identical to that in the United States where ATC tapes of accidents have always been available. In fact, live and archived broadcasts of arrivals and departures at major airports are available online at liveatc.net. Worldwide the actual non-radio'd last words of pilots are never made available as one of the conditions for allowing cockpit voice recorders into cockpits. Nevertheless many such live recordings are also available online for a number of major accidents. The Swissair 111 investigation took four years and cost $57M. It found that arcing wiring set fire to flammable thermal-acoustic blankets beneath cabin linings. That fire was propagated through into the cockpit by sub-lining air-conditioning flows and progressively knocked out the aircraft's electrical systems.