SilkAir under fire as suicide crash theory gains ground

SINGAPORE-BASED carrier SilkAir came under fire Thursday as new evidence backed a theory that pilot suicide may have caused a 1997 crash in Indonesia which killed all 104 people aboard.

Families of victims on the SilkAir Boeing 737-300, which nose-dived into a river on Sumatra island, sought an independent probe into why a pilot with known disciplinary problems was allowed to fly.

Flight MI185, with 97 passengers and seven crew, crashed on December 19, 1997 while on a flight from Jakarta to Singapore. It was cruising at 35,000 feet (10,600 meters) when it suddenly went earthward, investigators have said.

An association set up by families of crash victims said "sterner and swifter" action should have been taken as the chief pilot, Tsu Way Ming, had been disciplined three times for violating flight procedures.

SilkAir is a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines Ltd.

The Indonesian-led crash probe has indicated "human intervention" may have caused the plane to plunge. Probers noted that Tsu, a 41-year-old former Singapore air force fighter pilot and instructor, was facing financial problems.

"Based on findings disclosed, the association reiterates its call for an independent commission of enquiry to be set up," the association said in a statement. [A day later the Singapore government rejected the suggestion.]

The group's president David Beevers, whose pregnant wife died in the crash, told Singapore television that Tsu "should not have been flying."

On the possibility of pilot suicide, he said: "I think it would have been more acceptable if it was mechancical. But if it is the case that someone did this deliberately, I think we are going to have to do a lot of soul-searching to accept that."

Investigators said the plane might have been brought down deliberately by human action, but did not blame Tsu.

Before the latest findings came to light, the airline was offering about US$140,000 as compensation for each victim, and only about 20 families had accepted the offer so far.

Singapore and Indonesian police have been brought into the probe as a result of the Indonesian Aircraft Accident Investigating Commission's interim findings.

SilkAir General Manager Mak Swee Wah said late Wednesday: "Suicide is not the conclusion at this point in time ... but it could be a cause, which is something we (should be) concerned about."

The families' association said it would write to Indonesia's President B.J. Habibie to get a reassurance that the investigation continues.

Some family members voiced anger at SilkAir, accusing it of trying to avoid responsibility.

"All this verbal play. I felt disgusted. My feeling was that they were trying to avoid the issue. They refused to see our point," the evening daily New Paper quoted Junitha Majeed, who lost her son in the crash, as saying.

"I don't want 'maybe' answers. I want SilkAir to admit to a sense of responsibility over this sorry affair," Seet Choo Chua, who lost his 28-year-old son, told the newspaper.

SilkAir's Mak said the airline had reviewed its operating practices and procedures since the accident and found that it had complied with all regulatory requirements.

"If it is finally established that human intervention was the cause, my colleagues and I in SilkAir would be deeply distressed and shocked, as would everyone in the airline industry," he said.

The Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organisation said it had no previous report of a suicide causing a plane crash.

A Hong Kong based South China Morning Post report August 27, 1999 by Barry Porter in Singapore said the families of at least 15 victims of the 1997 SilkAir crash say they are now even more determined to take legal action after learning the plane may have been deliberately brought down.

"This is not about compensation," said Stephanie Chong, whose husband was among the 104 people killed. "We are looking for the truth and for someone to be responsible for the crash."

Next-of-kin have been angered by the snail's pace of the accident investigation and how poorly they have been kept informed.

The pilot-suicide theory was first mooted a month after the December 19 accident in Indonesia, but was condemned at the time by SilkAir as "unhealthy speculation".

The preliminary findings of Indonesian investigators presented to family members on Wednesday said an unknown person had put the plane into a nose dive and switched off the cockpit voice recorder, and pilot Captain Tsu Way Ming had tried leaving the cockpit just seconds before it crashed.

Indonesia's Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission said examination of the wreckage and flight data recorder indicated that on impact the aircraft's horizontal stabiliser had a nose-down trim - which means it was set to descend.

During their briefing, families focused on Captain Tsu's role and revelations about his financial difficulties and poor disciplinary record, which showed he failed to file reports on earlier flights and had once switched off the flight recorder in the months preceding the crash.

Relatives of the victims are frustrated over why SilkAir did not ground Captain Tsu and why it has taken 20 months for much of this information to be produced.