We could soon know a little more about why Swissair flight 111 crashed into the ocean off the cost of Nova Scotia in September of 1998.

The CBC has learned that on Monday, the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) will make five recommendations concerning engineering and pilot practice flaws.

The announcement will be made at a news conference at the Canadian Forces Shearwater base in Nova Scotia – where investigators have pieced together the plane's cockpit.

Some of the names on the Swissair Flight 111 monument
Some of the names on the Swissair Flight 111 monument

The plane went down off Peggy's Cove on September 2, 1998, killing all 229 people on board. It was travelling to Geneva from New York.

No one single cause for the crash has been determined

"Whenever we discover some abnormality or safety deficiency, we make note of it and pass it along to the regulatory bodies," said safety board spokesman Peter Mumford.

Wreckage from Swissair Flight 111
Wreckage from Swissair Flight 111

From the start, investigators have known a fire inside the cockpit contributed to the crash. But because of an electrical failure six minutes before the crash, the cockpit voice and data recorders were too damaged to be useful to the investigation.

The TSB has already recommended recording devices be powered independently.

Monday's recommendations won't be binding. But airlines might see them as a warning – that the way pilots deal with on-board crisis can result in disaster.

The recommendations will focus on one particular engineering flaw, and make five separate findings on what pilots, airlines, and the aircraft industry can do about it.

The TSB will also announce on Monday that the reconstruction phase of the investigation is over. It will now move to the TSB lab in Ottawa.