Dear Friends Several years ago, a SilkAir B737 crashed enroute Jakarta/Singapore. Pilot suicide was one of the possibilities, but the courts here did not rule this way. Now the case has gone to court in Los Angeles and last week, the judge ruled that the cause of the crash was a defective rudder valve. Here's the story from The Straits Times of 11 July 2004 begin article==> 3 families got $75m. Now 29 others are going to court LA court judge will decide how much maker of plane component that malfunctioned owes in damages By Tracy Quek FIRST came the $75-million ruling that a Los Angeles Superior Court handed down last week. Now, lawyers acting for families of 29 other SilkAir crash victims will be back in court tomorrow, when a judge will determine how their cases should be tried. The judge will also determine how much Parker Hannifin Corp, the world's largest maker of hydraulic equipment, owes them in damages. It was ordered to pay $75 million to the families of three victims, after the court found it responsible for the December 1997 crash in Indonesia. The company had made a component of the rudder-control system that malfunctioned, sending the plane into a nose dive. Called a servo valve, it is attached to the plane's power-control unit, which controls the rudder's movement. The court would not apportion blame to SilkAir or Boeing, maker of the 10-month-old 737. Lawyer Walter Lack of the LA firm Engstrom, Lipscomb & Lack, who acts for the families, told The Sunday Times by e-mail that he expects the cases to be tried in batches of three or five. The damages will depend on the age, occupation, earnings history and potential work-life expectancy of each victim. Earlier, the bereaved families had accepted compensation from SilkAir. This bars them from further legal action against the airline. Boeing is also believed to be reaching out-of-court settlements with the families. Last December, Boeing dropped its lawsuit against the airline and the estate of pilot Tsu Way Ming, in the wake of new evidence that rudder malfunction caused the crash. The LA court's ruling contradicts the US National Transportation Safety Board's belief that Mr Tsu purposely crashed the plane. Parker Hannifin has said it will appeal the decision. Another 40 cases are pending in the federal court in Seattle. It may accept the ruling of the LA court and then decide how much damages to award. Whatever the ultimate ruling, Mr Lack said, 'that judge will rely heavily upon the result in our case'. The primary points argued during the trial involved the condition of the servo valve taken from the power-control unit. Found inside it were pieces of sheared metal that could only have resulted from the manufacturing process, said the lawyer. The specifications for this valve require all edges of its internal structure to be sharp and its metal surfaces to be free of steel burrs. The metals expert he engaged found 'chip-outs' in the valve and numerous burrs 'that could easily have interfered with the smooth operation of the valve'. That is why the firm engaged aeronautical engineering expert Frederic Wilken to track it down because 'no one would tell us where the critical servo valve for the power-control unit went after it was inspected in May 1998'. Mr Wilken found it 'by accident' locked in a safe in Jakarta. A law firm there was engaged to petition Indonesia's Supreme Court to remove the valve. It was taken to a lab in Pensacola, Florida, for tests. All this cost US$150,000 (S$255,000). The jury rejected Parker Hannifin and Boeing's seven-year bid to blame the pilot. It also rejected Parker Hannifin's claims that Boeing's rudder design or the carelessness of the flight crew contributed to the crash, Mr Lack said. He said: 'We believe that justice has been well served and that a message has been sent to Parker Hannifin concerning the defective nature of their manufacturing processes.' <==end article