U.S. safety board rebukes Indonesian report on plane crash

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the U.S. says an Indonesian report into a 1997 jet crash that killed everyone on board is wrong.

A Silk Air jet crashed in Indonesia, killing all 104 people .

The Indonesian report concluded that after what it called a thorough and professional investigation, no cause could be determined for the crash of the nearly-new Boeing 737.

But the Washington Post newspaper reports the head of the NTSB says Indonesian authorities ignored much of the evidence.

The Post says the U.S. board has concluded the pilot deliberately crashed the plane. The Americans were involved in the investigation because the plane was built in the States.

The board's chair says in a letter to Indonesian authorities that Captain Tsu Way Ming owed a lot of money and was about to lose his job. The letter says, "The accident can be explained by intentional pilot action."

The NTSB report says the engines were set to high power and the controls were set to the nose-down position.

Air crash investigations are often controversial as airlines, airplane manufacturers, pilots and governments all have keen interests. However, it is unusual for one country's agency to so blatantly criticize another country's official report.

Silk Air is a regional partner of Singapore Airlines. At the time of the crash, the plane was on a flight from Jakarta to Singapore.