Investigators declined to say how much of the data was faulty as they continued analyzing the reams of data from the black box aboard the MD-11 that crashed off Nova Scotia Sept. 2, killing all 229 aboard. But it has become apparent that during the last five minutes of the recording, the plane's computers were going haywire, possibly the result of an electrical problem or a fire.
"A progressive number of parameters exhibit anomolies in the final minutes of the flight recording," said Vic Gerden, chief investigator for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. "These anomolies were determined to be fault codes generated by avionics
systems on the aircraft." Investigators are looking into whether electrical sources to the plane's circuitry were burning and causing the computers to behave erratically, sources said. The plane has three electrical power sources, one from each engine.
Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble, the designated first minister of Northern Ireland, held more than 30 minutes of private talks with Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army's political wing, in a landmark encounter that Trimble called "civilized and workmanlike."
09-11-98
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