SilkAir crash probe focussing on pilot

SilkAir crash probe focussing on pilot

SINGAPORE (Reuters): The pilot's state of mind has become the chief concern of officials probing the cause of a Silkair plane crash that killed all 104 aboard, the head of the Indonesian investigation said.

The investigation is now examining "the psychology of a man who is doing things which you and I never think, I hope, never think to do," said Oetarjo Diran, head of the Indonesian investigation, in an interview with Singapore's state-run television aired late on Saturday.

Captain Tsu Way Ming had "problems" that were "incrementally...mounting to a certain level that might be very difficult to overcome," said Diran in his first public comments since an interim report on the crash was released last week.

Investigators said then that "unlawful interference" could have caused the plane to crash in Indonesia in 1997, further fueling speculation that Tsu may have committed suicide by deliberately downing the jet.

The report said the Singaporean pilot had financial difficulties and that he had been previously reprimanded three times by the airline for improper procedures, including once for deactivating a cockpit "black box" flight recorder.

The Boeing 737-300 had just entered service in the fleet of the Singapore Airlines subsidiary when it plunged from a stable cruising altitude of 35,000 feet over Indonesia on a clear day in December, 1997.

The wreckage has revealed the plane's controls had been put into a nose-down setting different from the cruise setting last recorded before its "black boxes" inexplicably stopped minutes before the crash.

But Tsu's wife told the Sunday Times newspaper that his behavior before the crash did not indicate suicidal tendencies. "I know for sure it is not true," Evelyn Tsu was quoted as saying. "It's very wrong to speak like that about a dead man."

Singapore's Airline Pilot's Association also defended Tsu, arguing that the three incidents which drew reprimands did not jeopardize safety and did not demonstrate incompetency, state television reported on Sunday.