A second expert report attacking the Civil Aviation Department's (CAD) conclusion that pilot error caused the 1999 China Airlines crash at Chek Lap Kok is to be presented at a public hearing into the accident which starts tomorrow.
The report by the Hong Kong Airline Pilots Association's technical and safety committee argues the CAD was wrong to identify a single cause of the accident, in which three people died and more than 200 were injured.
The Sunday Morning Post revealed last week how China Airlines, in its own expert report to the Board of Review, accused the CAD of manipulating data to blame Italian pilot Gerardo Lettich, 62.
China Airlines' case will now be supported in principle by the second experts' report, which was jointly prepared with the International Federation of Air Pilots Association's accident analysis committee.
Qualified accident investigators who drew up the second report say the CAD's finding that the sole, main cause of the crash was Mr Lettich's inability to control the rate of descent of the MD-11 could not be supported, according to industry sources.
One source said: 'The report does not go as far as the China Airlines report, which effectively concludes no pilot, however skilful, could have avoided what happened that day.