SEARCHERS FIND NO SURVIVORS; JETLINER'S PASSENGERS HAD TIME TO DON VESTS.

Byline: David Crary Associated Press 

The 229 people aboard Swissair Flight 111 had time to prepare for the worst while the pilots struggled in vain to keep the smoking, groaning jetliner aloft long enough for an emergency landing.

Some passengers donned their life vests during the minutes before the MD-11 jumbo jet crashed and broke apart Wednesday night in choppy seas off Nova Scotia, Swissair officials said Thursday. The plane, which carried 137 Americans, left a slick of jet fuel, floating luggage and human remains, but no survivors.

``When you saw how small the pieces of fragments were, you could tell it must have been a pretty horrific crash,'' said Jim Buckley, skipper of a whaling boat in a makeshift flotilla that fruitlessly searched for people to rescue. The cause of the crash was not known.

By nightfall Thursday, authorities said about 60 bodies and an array of aircraft parts had been recovered. But Lt. Commander Jacques Fauteux, one of the search coordinators, said none of the aircraft pieces was larger than an automobile.

Fauteux said more than 1,000 people still were involved in the search.

Aboard the jet flown by one of the world's safest airlines were 14 crew members and 215 passengers. There were two infants, several United Nations employees and one of the foremost leaders in the global fight against AIDS, Dr. Jonathan Mann.

Swiss tennis star Marc Rosset was scheduled to return on the ill-fated flight after losing at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, but changed his mind and decided to stay in New York an extra night.

``It's a strange feeling when you realize that for just changing your mind you are still alive,'' Rosset said Thursday.

The Geneva-bound plane departed New York's Kennedy International Airport at 8:18 p.m. EDT Wednesday and crashed 90 minutes later near Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, said Swissair spokesman Jean-Claude Donzel.

Sixteen minutes passed between the crew's first report of trouble - smoke in the cockpit while the plane was in Canadian airspace at 33,000 feet - and the plane's disappearance from radar scopes at about 8,000 feet, according to Roy Bears of the Canadian Transportation Safety Board.

Five minutes after the crew reported the smoke and headed toward Halifax, the aircraft began descending to dump fuel, said Tony Rushton, vice president of the Canadian air traffic controllers union.

In another five minutes the crew declared an emergency, and just moments later the aircraft's transponder, which automatically transmits its identity and altitude, stopped functioning, he said.

Controllers monitored the plane on radar until all contact finally was lost.

Pilot's futile efforts

The pilot, Urs Zimmermann, 50, tried to coax the plane to an emergency landing at the Halifax airport, 35 miles from the crash site. The pilot initially proposed heading for Boston, but air traffic controllers pointed out that Halifax was closer - 42 miles compared with 192 miles.

Swissair said the plane was seven to 10 minutes away from the Halifax airport when it plunged into water about 150 feet deep.

Canadian experts are leading the investigation into what caused the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board in Washington sent 10 experts to Canada, and experts from Switzerland also were deployed.

Canadian and U.S. officials said there was no indication the crash resulted from a terrorist act. The Canadians said their intelligence services were nonetheless in contact with the FBI.

FBI Director Louis Freeh said his agents were examining the passenger list and working to ensure key evidence was properly preserved.

In towns along the scenic but often treacherous coast of Nova Scotia, residents reported hearing sputtering noises from an aircraft passing overhead, then a thundering crash.

``The motors were still going, but it was the worst-sounding deep groan that I've ever heard,'' said Claudia Zinck-Gilroy.

Search for survivors

Dozens of fishing boats and coast guard ships hurried to the crash site, about six miles off the coast of Peggy's Cove. The picturesque fishing village, with a population of only 60, is popular with tourists for its pirate lore and much-photographed lighthouse, but the area also is known for shipwrecks and other maritime tragedies.

After the first few hours of the nightlong search, the mood among boat crews turned grim when reports of survivors proved false. Instead, boat after boat radioed to a naval command vessel that more body bags were needed to cradle human remains scattered among aircraft debris over several square miles of the Atlantic.

Searchlights from boats, helicopters and planes illuminated the area during the night. Heavy surf, a remnant of Hurricane Danielle, hampered the first hours of the rescue effort and rain fell until dawn.

Searchers said they had located a chunk of the plane's fuselage, believed to be intact, on the ocean floor. Divers planned to search for the flight recorders, which could help determine the cause of the disaster.

Swissair and its partner, Delta Airlines, were flying relatives of the crash victims from New York and Switzerland to Halifax. Nova Scotia officials offered to provide 900 hotel rooms for the families and to protect their privacy while they faced the grim chore of identifying loved ones.

Philippe Bruggisser, the head of Swissair's parent company SAirGroup, said the airline would pay $20,000 in immediate financial aid to any victim's family who requests it. This would be in addition to any compensation due under international law.

CAPTION(S):

Photo, map

PHOTO A Canadian policeman looks in a purse retrieved with rubble after the crash of Swissair Flight 111.

Matt York/Associated Press

Map: Swissair crash off coast near Peggy's Cove