CRASH OF SILKAIR MI185 (Status of investigation)

Mr Chuang Shaw Peng asked the Minister for Communications what is the status of investigation on the crash of SilkAir MI185; whether there is any evidence or suspicion of foul play; and whether families of the victims are fairly compensated.

The Minister for Communications (Mr Mah Bow Tan): Sir, investigations on the crash by a team of Indonesian, Singaporean and American experts are in progress, both in the United States and Indonesia. The task is made more difficult by the lack of useful data from the two black boxes, despite extensive efforts by investigators from the United States National Transportation and Safety Bureau (NTSB) and other expert agencies. The investigation team is headed by Indonesia and includes representatives from Singapore, the US and Australia. It will meet in Jakarta soon to review the status of the investigation and to work out a plan for the subsequent investigation task. These tasks include laboratory examination of wreckage pieces, reconstruction of parts of the aircraft, flight simulations using computers of flight simulators, study of the human performance aspects, review of flight and maintenance documents and further analysis of data from the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder. We hope that this phase of the investigation will provide us some clues to the cause of this tragic incident.

On the question of foul play, so far, the team has not uncovered any evidence and there is no suspicion of foul play. On the matter of compensation, I am informed by SilkAir that their lawyer is currently liaising with the legal next-of-kin of the deceased. Compensation will be paid in accordance with the contract of carriage under international aviation regulations.

Dr Toh See Kiat (Aljunied): Sir, I would like to ask the Minister whether he would consider calling a press conference of the experts who can perhaps brief the public and the press on some of these issues.

Mr Mah Bow Tan: Sir, as I said in my reply just now, the experts will be reconvening in Jakarta some time next week. After they have formulated the next phase of their investigation, I will request them to hold a press briefing to explain the status of the investigation so far, from the experts' point of view, and also to brief the public on what it intends to do in the next phase.