Latest News - Singapore
03 July 03:31PM -- Singapore Time
SilkAir pilot not fit to fly, says lawyer
SINGAPORE -- The pilot of a SilkAir plane that crashed in a sudden nose dive in 1997, killing 104 people, should not have been allowed to fly the aircraft, given his past disciplinary problems, lawyers said in court on Tuesday.
Mr Khoo charged that SilkAir 'wilfully turned a blind eye' to the fact that Capt Tsu Way Ming, the pilot of the plane, had a history of flouting safety procedures.
On the second morning of the trial to hear a lawsuit against the airline, lawyer Michael Khoo said that SilkAir captain Tsu Way Ming caused the crash deliberately by 'willful misconduct' or 'default'.
Mr Khoo charged that SilkAir 'willfully turned a blind eye to the fact that Capt Tsu had committed prior breaches of the proper safety procedures and/or regulations' of SilkAir.
He was 'not a fit and proper person to take control of SilkAir flight MI 185,' asserted Mr Khoo.
SilkAir flight MI185, a Boeing 737-300 en route from Jakarta to Singapore, nose dived 10,670 m into a river on the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Dec 19, 1997, killing everyone aboard.
It was the first and only crash for SilkAir, the regional arm of national carrier Singapore Airlines.
In its final report released last year, the Indonesian-led investigation team said there was not enough evidence to determine the cause of the crash. But the investigators said the plane's controls were in a nose-down setting. They also said that the 'black box' cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were switched off moments before the plane went into a dive.
A separate report from the US National Transportation Safety Board argued that the plane could not have acted as it did without deliberate action from the pilot.
On Tuesday, Mr Khoo cited two prior breaches of regulations by Capt Tsu: On March 3, 1997, he was flying a SilkAir flight into Manado, Indonesia, when he tried to land while the plane was going too fast and was still too high.
His co-pilot on that flight, New Zealander Lawrence Dittmer, intervened and persuaded Capt Tsu to make another approach to land the plane.
First Officer Dittmer, who is the star witness for the plaintiffs, was due to take the witness stand later on Tuesday.
In a second incident on June 24, 1997, Capt Tsu and First Officer Dittmer were again flying together. The two men were still at 'loggerheads' over the Manado incident and had 'a tense discussion' about it in the cockpit before leaving Singapore's Changi airport, said Mr Khoo.
Capt Tsu turned off the cockpit voice recorder, or blackbox, because he wanted to keep secret the conversation he had with First Officer Dittmer about the Manado incident. The New Zealander refused to fly with the recorder deactivated because it is against the rules, so Capt Tsu turned it back on again. Capt Tsu was demoted to a lower rank for turning off the blackbox recorder, Mr Khoo said.
The lawyer added that the pilot 'received no psychological assessment following any of these incidents'.
SilkAir has not presented its defence in court. However, a copy of the defence submission to be made to the court, obtained from its lawyer, shows that SilkAir's lawyers will deny that the crash was caused or contributed to by any negligence or breach of duty on its part or of its employees.
'Both pilots were properly trained, licensed and qualified to conduct the flight,' SilkAir said in the court document.
'There was no evidence found to indicate that the performance of either pilot was adversely affected by any medical or physiological condition.'
The other pilot on board the ill-fated flight was Mr Duncan Ward.
The plaintiffs are six families from Singapore, Malaysia, the United States and Britain, and include parents, children and spouses of those killed in the crash.
Other relatives have opted not to sue the airline, accepting its offer of about US$200,000 in compensation for each crash victim, Singapore Airlines spokesman S. Supramaniam said. -- AP
On the Net:
Links to news reports on the crash of SilkAir MI 185
Internet memorial to the victims of MI 185
(July 4, 2001 Wed)
Pilot 'flouted air safety rules'
Families not trying to prove SilkAir pilot committed suicide, but star witness describes scary experiences
By Karen Wong
THE families of six SilkAir crash victims suing the airline are not out to prove that pilot-suicide caused the plane to crash near Palembang, Indonesia, on Dec 19, 1997.
'The plane was going left and right, left and right. It was very disturbing... I was scared.'
-- Co-pilot Lawrence Dittmer, describing an unusual landing manoeuvre by Capt Tsu in Manado, Indonesia (Picture by Enrique Soriano)
They want to show instead that the tragedy was probably caused by the cockpit crew - either Captain Tsu Way Ming or co- pilot Duncan Ward.
Senior Counsel Michael Khoo, representing 15 family members of the victims suing SilkAir, told Justice Tan Lee Meng yesterday: 'It was never part of our case that Captain Tsu Way Ming had committed suicide and Your Honour is not required to make a finding of fact on suicide.'
The plaintiffs hoped that if the court found that the crash was probably caused by some 'input' from the cockpit, it would serve to warn all airlines of the need to monitor pilot performance more closely, monitor breach of safety procedures by pilots more carefully and take remedial action against them more seriously, in the interest of the safety of air travellers.
After Mr Khoo summed up his case, all the action in the packed courtroom focused on the plaintiffs' key witness, First Officer Lawrence Dittmer, a pilot with SilkAir.
Mr Dittmer, who has about seven years of flying experience, said he was First Officer Ward's best friend.
He told the court that just months before the tragedy, he flew with Captain Tsu twice and the captain had breached safety procedures.
The first incident happened in Manado, Indonesia, in March 1997, when their aircraft was too high to make a landing.
Capt Tsu chose to perform an unusual manoeuvre, which put the aircraft through a 'violent roll'.
'If the passengers were anything like me, they would have been scared. I was scared,' said Mr Dittmer.
Three months later, when he flew with Capt Tsu again, the latter was agitated over rumours that he had almost crashed the plane in Manado.
Mr Dittmer said he was shocked when the captain pulled out the circuit breaker of the cockpit voice recorder.
'I was surprised, then angry. I had never seen it in my life before,' he said.
'I really had no hesitation voicing out what I thought. I said I wasn't happy with the procedure and that he had to do something about it.'
The plaintiffs claim that the airline knew, or should have known, that Captain Tsu's history of non-compliance with safety procedures, made him unfit to be in charge of the fateful flight.
Mr Khoo, assisted by Ms Josephine Low and Mr Andy Chiok, is representing the family members of Mr Eugene Francis Clarke, 56; Mr Jonathan Edward Oey, 39; Madam Berenice Braislin Oey, 71; Mr Lee Eng Seng, 51; Mr John Joseph Parappuram, 45; and Madam Judith Pang Swee Gan, 35.
Yesterday was the second day of the hearing in which the five families are suing the airline in the High Court for 'wilful misconduct' or negligence.
They are seeking unrestricted damages from the airline, on the basis that the MI 185 crash was the result of 'wilful misconduct', or a default, by the airline, or its crew members who were in control of the aircraft at the time of the tragedy.
SilkAir, represented by Mr Lok Vi Ming, Mr Ng Hwee Chong and Ms Joanna Foong, claims that the crash was not the result of wilful misconduct or default by either the airline or its cockpit crew.
The hearing continues today.
SILKAIR CRASH LAWSUIT
I was angry
CO-PILOT Lawrence Dittmer was first 'surprised', and then 'angry', when Captain Tsu Way Ming wanted to carry on with a flight, even though he had switched off the cockpit voice recorder.
This incident took place on June 24, 1997, when the pair were piloting a flight from Singapore to Jakarta.
Mr Dittmer said that while the two of them were walking to the plane in Singapore, Capt Tsu voiced his frustration about rumours he had been hearing about his professional ability.
'He was upset when he got onto the aircraft,' he said.
After they made some preparations for the flight, Capt Tsu brought up the Manado incident, which happened about three months earlier.
He said that the captain asked him: 'Have you heard rumours that I nearly crashed the plane?'
Mr Dittmer replied: 'There were rumours.
'I really didn't know where they had come from, but they seemed to be incorrect.'
He then told the court that Capt Tsu relaxed a bit after he had assuredhim that he did not spread those rumours.
But, said Mr Dittmer, just before the plane taxied out to the runway, Capt Tsu reached behind for a manual and, subsequently, pulled the circuit breaker for the cockpit voice recorder.
Mr Dittmer said: 'I was surprised, then angry. I had never seen it in my life before.
'I really had no hesitation voicing what I thought. I said I wasn't happy with the procedure and that he had to do something about it.'
Capt Tsu had apparently wanted to retain their exchange and give it to the management.
He was also going to continue the flight without the recorder operating. But his co-pilot refused to do that.
The recorder tape is only 30 minutes long and continuously re-records.
Capt Tsu then suggested that they head back to the gate so that theycould download the tape, before departing.
Clearance to return to the gate was obtained, and Mr Dittmer said they were returning for a 'technical reason'.
But Capt Tsu later changed his mind.
He reset the circuit breaker and the flight carried on.
He later told Mr Dittmer that he was just 'testing' him.
As a result of this incident, Capt Tsu was demoted from his position as a line instructor pilot.
SILKAIR CRASH LAWSUIT
I was scared
First Officer Lawrence Dittmer, a pilot with SilkAir, told a packed courtroom during the SilkAir lawsuit yesterday about the two occasions he had flown with Captain Tsu Way Ming, when safety rules were breached
DESPITE being a trained pilot, First Officer Lawrence Dittmer said he was scared when the plane made what felt like a violent roll as Captain Tsu Way Ming, who was the pilot on the ill-fated SilkAir aircraft on Dec 19, 1997, tried to manoeuvre the aircraft for a landing.
This was on March 3, 1997, when Capt Tsu and Mr Dittmer were piloting a flight to Manado, he recounted.
As the plane was descending, he said, they decided not to land on the proposed runway, but on another one, due to the weather conditions.
But the aircraft was 'too high, still too fast and it wasn't stabilised' for a safe landing, he said.
Then, Capt Tsu opted to perform an 'S-bend manoeuvre', to lose some altitude, which surprised Mr Dittmer. 'It was the first and last time I had encountered it.'
Using a model aircraft to demonstrate the plane's movements, he said:
'It felt like a violent roll. All I remember was that the plane was going left and right, left and right. It was very disturbing.
'If the passengers were anything like me, they would have been scared. I was scared.'
The manoeuvre did not get the plane into position and the aircraft still had to 'go around'. And to do that, the plane needed to climb and it needed more power. But not enough power was applied initially, and Mr Dittmer said he had to call 'Speed, speed, speed', and he helped push the thrust levers forward.
While this was happening, no announcements were made to the cabin crew or to the passengers. Later, some of the cabin crew said they felt 'sick', and that some of the passengers had asked about what happened in the approach.
'On our arrival back in Singapore, I mentioned that a 'go-around' is reportable, and Capt Tsu said that he would deal with it and see management about it.
'He said to me: 'Not to worry, I will deal with it.' It's the captain who signs the report, and it wasn't our responsibility. Based on that, I had no reason to distrust him.'
Later, Capt Tsu did not report the case, and it was another captain who did.
What SilkAir inquiry found
IN A letter dated July 3, 1997, that was sent to Capt Tsu (right), SilkAir said that in the first incident at Manado Airport, it was concerned with his ''failure to take appropriate measures early enough to prevent the aircraft from ending up in a position...that resulted in a go-around''.
SilkAir told him it took ''a serious view of his subsequent non-disclosure of the go-around which should have, in the company's interests, been reported noting the circumstances leading up to it''.
It added that it was ''cautioning'' him on his failure to act appropriately in that situation.
Regarding the second incident, SilkAir said that it found his conduct ''unbecoming of a commander'', when he caused equipment essential for the flight to be made ''unserviceable'', and that could have compromised the company's position.
''Having taken all other factors into account, the company has decided in this case to remove you from the position of line instructor pilot with immediate effect. ''The company also reprimands you for your actions which reflect poor judgment on your part.''