(3 Sep 1998) Eng/French/Nat

A Swissair jet carrying 229 people has crashed off Nova Scotia and it is believed there are no survivors.

The plane, en route from New York to Geneva, went down late on Wednesday after the pilot reported smoke in the cabin and tried an emergency landing at Halifax International Airport.

So far, only four bodies have been recovered as rescue workers desperately search in the murky waters off Nova Scotia's coast.

At Geneva International Airport, the plane's intended destination, psychologists and a crisis centre are in place to comfort next of kin who began arriving to pick up their relatives.

They're expecting an outpouring of grief here at Geneva International Airport.

Authorities are on hand to care for and speak to relatives who were expecting to welcome loved ones on Swissair Flight 111 from New York.

The jet departed New York's Kennedy International Airport around 8:30pm EDT (0030 GMT on Thursday) bound for Geneva, but the pilot declared an emergency on board just an hour later.

The arrival board at the Geneva airport initially listed the flight as 'delayed.'

Once smoke overtook the cabin, the pilot attempted a crash landing at Halifax International Airport in Nova Scotia but to no avail.

The plane crashed off the coast.

The McDonnell Douglas MD11 plane carried 215 passengers and 14 crew and none are believed to have survived.

Daniel Teysseire, chief airport manager at Geneva International Airport, said a crisis centre was up and running as soon as he was notified of the crash.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
\"What can I do here is that as soon as we receive any information about the crash, we set up a crisis cell in order to deal with all the phone calls from the next of kin about the passengers.\"
SUPER CAPTION: Daniel Teysseire, chief airport manager, Geneva International Airport

As business started to pick up at the airport early on Thursday morning, the expected stream of families coming to meet Flight 111's arrival began.

Anyone coming to the terminal to gaze at the arrivals board found an ominous posted sign directing them to the Swissair desk for more information.

Philippe Roy, chief of protocol for the airport, said mental health workers were on hand to help relatives handle the devastating information they would receive about the crash.

He was not sure what the families who had already begun to arrive had been told by airline staff.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
\"Psychologists, psychiatrists are here waiting for people, for families or next of kin.\"
(reporter: how many families have arrived so far?)
\"I don't know now, I think 20 people are here, families.\"
(reporter: what are they being told?)
\"Pardon? I don't know.\"
SUPER CAPTION: Philippe Roy, Chief of Protocol, Geneva International Airport

One man, the father of an airline steward for Swissair, came to the airport unsure whether his son had been working on the illfated flight.

He said although his son regularly worked the flight's route, he was holding out hope until he got a list of crew on board the flight from the airline.

SOUNDBITE: (French)
\"I heard it on the radio and I'm fairly confident he was aboard because he said so yesterday. If he was there, I just don't know I'll wait for the list. (reporter question) Honestly, it's possible. (what's his name?) Stuart.\"
SUPER CAPTION: Charles Perrin, father of Swissair airline steward who may have been on Flight 111

It was Swissair's first crash since October 7, 1979, when a Swissair DC8 overran a runway in Athens on landing and burst into flames.


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