SilkAir Flight 185
1997 plane crash in Indonesia
SilkAir Flight 185 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by a Boeing 737-300 from Soekarno–Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia to Changi Airport in Singapore that crashed into the Musi River near Palembang, Sumatra, on 19 December 1997, killing all 97 passengers and 7 crew members on board.
The investigation into the cause of the crash was led by investigators from the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), who were joined by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The NTSB, which participated in the investigation due to Boeing's manufacture of the aircraft in the US, investigated the crash under lead investigator Greg Feith.
The cause of the crash remains disputed and contentious. In its final report, the NTSC stated that there was "no concrete evidence" to support the pilot suicide hypothesis, while the manufacturer had already determined the suspected Parker-Hannifin hydraulic power control unit (PCU) to be defect-free. Ultimately, the NTSC concluded that the evidence was insufficient to determine a cause. Conversely, the NTSB submitted a letter concluding that the crash was the result of deliberate flight-control inputs, which were "most likely by the captain".
Background
Aircraft
The aircraft involved was a Boeing 737-36N with serial number 28556, registered as 9V-TRF, and powered by two CFM56-3B2 engines. Having completed its maiden flight on 27 January 1997, the aircraft was delivered to SilkAir on 14 February, 10 months before the crash. At the time of the accident, it was the newest aircraft in SilkAir's fleet, and had accumulated more than 2,200 flight hours in 1,300 cycles.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “SilkAir Flight 185” as 1997 plane crash in Indonesia. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as 1997 plane crash in Indonesia. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1272213. Authority coordinates are -2.458, 104.937. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1997.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “SilkAir Flight 185” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.