Silk Air insurer files lawsuit against Boeing

Silk Air insurer files lawsuit against Boeing

NEW YORK (Dow Jones): The insurer of a Silk Air jetliner that
crashed in Indonesia in 1997, killing all 104 people aboard,
filed a lawsuit Friday blaming the aircraft's manufacturer,
Boeing Co. (BA), for a defect in the Boeing 737's design.

Singapore Aviation & General Insurance Co. claims in the
complaint filed in Manhattan federal court that the jet went down
as a result of either a defective rudder control mechanism, or a
defect in the design of its head/galley area that "permitted
water to enter an electronics bay causing a malfunction."

The insurer seeks to recover the $35 million payment it made
to affiliates of the airline for the value of the aircraft.

A Boeing spokesman couldn't immediately be reached for
comment.

Indonesian officials recently completed an investigation of
the Silk Air crash, issuing a report that said no cause could be
determined. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board,
however, has reportedly criticized the Indonesian investigation,
saying the crash was probably caused by the jet's captain.

A report in Friday's Washington Post says the U.S. believes
the pilot was in serious financial trouble and had experienced
several run-ins with the airline's management.

Singapore Aviation's suit also names several other companies
it says were responsible for the aircraft's parts, including
Parker Hannifin Corp. (PH) and Honeywell International Inc. (HON)
Silk Air is a unit of Singapore Airlines Ltd.

Meanwhile a Singapore government-linked newspaper on Saturday
claimed conclusions by U.S. aviation investigators that pilot
suicide probably caused a 1997 SilkAir crash was likely biased
because the airplane was made by U.S. company Boeing Co.

The Straits Times said in an editorial that this month's U.S.
National Transportation Safety Board report raised questions
about "nationalistic bias."

The nearly new Boeing 737-300 crashed into an Indonesian river
on Dec. 19, 1997, killing all 104 people aboard. The Singapore-
bound flight plunged into the river from 10,700 meters shortly
after leaving Jakarta.

Both the U.S. report and a separate Indonesian report
concluded that the voice and data recorders in the cockpit were
turned off minutes before the crash and that the plane's
stabilizer was inexplicably set to dive.

But the U.S. aviation board said the Indonesians failed to
analyze personal information about the Singaporean pilot, Tsu Way
Ming, that may have shed light on the crash. It noted Tsu had
significant debts from playing the stock market and that he had
been reprimanded by airline management several times in the weeks
before the crash.

Indonesian and Singaporean authorities said they conducted
thorough investigations of Tsu's personal life and that he was
not suicidal.

After nearly three years and 30,000 man hours, the final
Indonesian report said investigators were unable to determine the
cause "due to the highly fragmented wreckage and the nearly total
lack of useful data, information and evidence."