the crash investigation revealed that hicks' ex-husband was a republic of singapore air force friend of tsu way ming, the singaporean captain of silkair flight 185. according to the recovered flight recorder, tsu had walked into the first class area of the plane's cabin just minutes before the crash. it would have been hard for him to miss hicks and dalrymple seated together. tsu was thought to have disabled the plane's flight recorder to prevent it from providing a clear record of the actions he was about to take. additionally, investigators discovered that tsu had longstanding personal problems and a string of troubling incidents as a pilot. leading up to the time of the crash, he had been experiencing serious family and financial problems, in part due to gambling debts. a month earlier, tsu had taken out a large life insurance policy on himself that went into effect just hours before the crash.