Silk Air Flight 185 - Flight History

Flight History

The Boeing 737-300 operating as Flight MI 185 was the newest in SilkAir's fleet, delivered to the airline on 14 February 1997, ten months before the crash.

Carrying 97 passengers and a crew of seven, the Boeing departed Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport's runway 25R at 15:37 local time (08:37 UTC) for a planned 80 minute flight to Singapore Changi Airport, with the captain at the controls. Generally fair weather was expected for the route, except for some thunderstorms near Singkep Island, 120 km south of Singapore.

The jetliner was cleared to climb to flight level 350 (35,000 feet/10,668 m above mean sea level), and to head directly to Palembang. At 15:47 the aircraft climbed through FL245 (24,500 feet/7,468 m). The crew then requested a clearance to proceed directly to PARDI. At 15:53 the crew reported reaching its cruise altitude of FL350 and was cleared to proceed directly to PARDI, and to report abeam Palembang. At 16:05 the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) ceased recording. According to the TV series Mayday, Captain Tsu took the opportunity of dropping his headphones to trip the circuit breaker. At 16:10 the controller informed the flight that it was abeam Palembang. The controller instructed the aircraft to maintain FL350 (35,000 feet/10,668 m) and to contact Singapore Control upon reaching PARDI. First Officer Duncan acknowledged this call. At 16:11:27 the flight data recorder (FDR) ceased recording.