Swissair

As the melody of "Amazing Grace" swept through Our Lady of Angels Church in Newport Beach on Sunday, mourners gathered in memory of 35-year-old William F. O'Gara Jr., one of the 229 people killed on board Swissair Flight 111 earlier this month. Several hundred friends and family members cried and prayed over the loss of O'Gara, a handsome man with black hair and deep blue eyes, who died when the jetliner slammed into Canadian waters Sept. 2, killing all aboard.

A treasure trove worth millions of dollars could well be sitting on the ocean floor, buried alongside the mangled wreckage of Swissair Flight 111, authorities said in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The valuables, including diamonds, jewels, millions of dollars in cash and the Picasso painting "The Painter," worth an estimated $1.5 million, were on their way to Geneva when the jet crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Sept. 2, killing all 229 people aboard.

Divers on Friday recovered the cockpit voice recorder from Swissair Flight 111--an important find that could help investigators learn why the jet plummeted into the Atlantic. Together with the flight data recorder, which recorded the flight's mechanical data and was retrieved earlier this week, the device may shed some light on the cause of the wreck that killed all 229 people aboard. The voice box was found 180 feet below the ocean surface around 6 p.m.

The sophisticated avionics computers on Swissair Flight 111 apparently began generating faulty information to the plane's flight data recorder about five minutes before the recorder cut off and radar contact with the jet was lost. Investigators declined to say how much of the data was faulty as they continued analyzing the information from the flight recorder, or "black box," aboard the MD-11 that crashed off Nova Scotia on Sept. 2, killing all 229 aboard.

Former boxer Jake LaMotta has filed a $50-million suit over the Swissair Flight 111 crash off Nova Scotia, Canada, that killed his son Joe and 228 others. The suit claims that the MD-11 jet had wiring problems that should have been corrected. The suit names Swissair, Delta Air Lines, McDonnell Douglas and Boeing Co. Meanwhile, a memorial service was held in Nova Scotia, and a U.S. Navy ship, the Grapple, arrived from Philadelphia to join recovery efforts.

Investigators have detected signs of heat damage on fragments of Swissair Flight 111's cockpit, evidence that could help determine why smoke billowed around the pilots before the jetliner crashed. The Swissair jet crashed into the Atlantic off Nova Scotia last Wednesday, killing all 229 people on board.

The on-board flight data recorder on Swissair Flight 111 stopped working just before the jetliner took its final, fatal dive into the Atlantic Ocean, air safety investigators disclosed Monday. Vic Gerden, the chief investigator for the Canadian Transportation Safety Board, said the device, which records more than 100 aircraft indicators and systems, failed while the aircraft was at an altitude of about 10,000 feet, about six minutes before the MD-11 aircraft hit the water.

In a discovery that promises to provide valuable clues to the cause of the crash of Swissair Flight 111, Canadian navy divers Sunday afternoon recovered the flight data recorder from an undersea debris field that also includes three large pieces of the aircraft's fuselage. "It's a very important step in the progression of this investigation," said Vic Gerden, who is leading the probe for the Canadian Transportation Safety Board.

Radio communication between the crew of Swissair Flight 111 and air traffic controllers ended abruptly in the midst of preparations for an emergency landing, and the aircraft plunged into the Atlantic Ocean six minutes later, air safety investigators said Saturday. "We have to land immediately" were the last words transmitted by the crew, who apparently had put on oxygen masks to protect against smoke filling the cockpit.

Villa Park resident William O'Gara called his mother a few minutes before his flight to Geneva to say "I love you" and ask for her prayers. That was just like him, family members said Saturday. O'Gara, a 35-year-old real estate agent, was among the 229 people killed Wednesday on Swissair Flight 111. The MD-11 jet, which took off from New York and was bound for Geneva, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, leaving no survivors. On Saturday, investigators continued to look into the cause of the crash.