The move came after a vote by Trimble's Board of Directors which AVweb has been told was as surprising to the employees within the division as it was to Mooney. Mooney officials tell AVweb that Trimble's board voted to cut their losses and get out of GA to concentrate on more profitable ventures, and, indeed, Trimble issued a press release saying that it was restructuring its operations and ending production of certain products at its Austin, Texas plant where its GA operations are located. She told AVweb no decisions have been made and that it will be at least a week before anything is decided. The second phase in the recovery of Swissair 111, retrieving the larger pieces, started last weekend as investigators seek to piece together what happened aboard the MD-11. So far, some 74 of the 229 victims, including the entire crew, have been identified, with 10 of them being identified through DNA only.
Investigators say that all of the easily accessible remains have been recovered and identified.
It is highly probable, they say, that the larger pieces of wreckage will contain more remains. About 90 percent of the MD-11 and its contents remain underwater. The emergency checklist used by the Swissair pilots to isolate the source of the smoke in the cockpit could have contributed to the tragedy, say some industry critics. The CVR transcript was reviewed by chief investigator Vic Gerden on Thursday. Critics contend that this could have restored power to the damaged wires aboard the MD-11, causing the electrical failure that has been suggested as a proximate cause of the crash.