Latest News - Singapore
05 July 05:31PM -- Singapore Time
'SilkAir pilot could have stabilised aircraft'
SINGAPORE -- The pilot of a SilkAir plane that crashed in 1997, killing all 104 people aboard, could have stabilised the plane quickly from its steep fall, the Singapore High Court was told on Thursday.
Mr John Laming, an Australian pilot and flight simulator instructor, said commercial pilots were trained to know how to handle a sudden loss of cabin pressure which puts an airplane into steep descent.
'I was talking here of 20 seconds of work,' he said, explaining the procedure to stabilise a plunging aircraft.
'It is not difficult. In the simulator, we train until you are very competent at this,' said Mr Laming, who said he had trained international airline pilots.
But he agreed under cross-examination that the physical changes in a real-life sudden loss of cabin pressure as well as the psychological pressure on the pilot would be different from a simulated nosedive.
He was giving evidence on the fourth day of a negligence suit lodged by relatives of six victims against SilkAir, the regional arm of Singapore Airlines.
The families claim there was evidence that the crash was deliberately caused by the cockpit crew.
Flight MI 185, a Boeing 737, crashed into an Indonesian river on Dec 19, 1997, killing all 104 passengers and crew aboard, including the pilot, Captain Tsu Way Ming and First Officer Duncan Ward. -- AFP