AFP
17th July 2001
SilkAir trial adjourned to source for new expert report
SINGAPORE, July 17 (AFP) - A negligence suit against SilkAir over a 1997 crash was abruptly adjourned in the Singapore High Court Tuesday, as lawyers scrambled to get their hands on a confidential expert report on the tragedy.
The report by the Cranfield Impact Centre in Britain was commissioned by Singapore Airlines, the parent company of SilkAir.
The families of six of the 104 people killed when a SilkAir flight crashed in Indonesia en route to Singapore in 1997 are suing the airline for negligence.
The existence of the report was revealed by Denis Howe, a professor at Cranfield University's College of Aeronautics in England during expert testimony.
Howe, in testimony last Friday, said he could not release the report because he prepared it as a consultant specifically for a client.
However, he admitted having discussed some details of his findings with Professor Oetarjo Diran who led the official Indonesian investigation into the crash.
Howe said "SIA had done their own calculations from photographs taken of the wreckage" and wanted confirmation from him.
Justice Tan Lee Meng adjourned the hearing on Tuesday afternoon when Michael Khoo, the counsel for the plaintiffs, demanded he be given a copy of the Howe findings. Defence lawyer Lok Vi Ming also said he did not have a copy.
Lawyers told AFP outside the court there was no guarantee the document would be introduced when the hearing resumed on Wednesday.
Before the adjournment on the 12th day of the hearing, evidence again focused on the safety record of Tsu Way Ming, the captain on the fatal flight.
The victims' families claim there was evidence the crash was deliberately caused by the cockpit crew.
Silkair vice president and chief pilot of flight operations Captain Leslie John Ganapathy testified that mistakes Tsu made in three separate incidents were "an issue of discipline" and were not safety concerns.
He said the indiscretions did not show that Tsu was irrational.
A three-year inquiry by Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee, led by Diran, could not determine what caused flight MI185 to crash, and said there was insufficient evidence to back the theory of a suicidal pilot.
[ 17 July 2001: Message edited by: Picard ]