Silkair Flight 185 was a scheduled passenger service from Jakarta, Indonesia to Singapore. On December 19, 1997, the ill-fated flight was being operated by Boeing 737-300, tail number 9V-TRF.

All 97 passengers, five cabin crew, the Singaporan captain Tsu Way Ming, and the copilot, New Zealander Duncan Ward, died when the aircraft, in a nearly vertical attitude, impacted the Musi River near Palembang, Sumatra following an abrupt descent.

It is widely presumed that the pilot deliberately crashed the aircraft in a mass homicide/suicide. The circuit breakers for the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were tripped minutes before the abrupt descent.

Suspicion cast upon Mr. Tsu is backed by several potential motives, including recent financial losses, his taking out of insurance on his life the week previous, his receipt of several recent disciplinary actions on the part of the airline.

The Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee, which led the investigation, was not able to find any conslusive cause and even several years after the fact, many conspiracy theories abound. Skeptics point to other difficult to explain accidents involving 737s which showed signs of quirky flight controls such as uncommanded rudder deflection, including USAir Flight 427 and United Airlines Flight 585. The pilot suicide theory and controversy is very similar to that of EgyptAir Flight 990.

See Also

• List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners