'Aviation Week' report criticized

'Aviation Week' report criticized

SINGAPORE (AP): Singapore Airlines said on Thursday that a recent article in Aviation Week reporting that pilot suicide was the only possible cause of a 1997 SilkAir crash is speculative and unhelpful.

The article in the Feb. 8 issue said that simulations carried out in Singapore, Indonesia and the United States at Boeing have shown that only deliberate action by a crew member could have resulted in the steep descent the 737-300 made as it crashed into a river in southern Sumatra.

The magazine quoted sources close to the investigation of the crash that killed 104 people in Indonesia on Dec. 17, 1998 as saying suicide by the captain is now regarded as the only possible cause.

"This is yet another speculative piece," said a faxed statement from Singapore Airlines, the parent company of SilkAir. "Speculative stories like this do not help the situation at all," the airline said.