Engine Malfunction Cited in Thai Crash : Aviation: One of the airliner’s two jets suddenly reversed thrust, officials say. But a Boeing spokesman has doubts.

An Austrian jetliner traveling over Thailand apparently tore apart after the thrust of one of its two engines suddenly reversed, Austrian transportation officials and the airline owner said Sunday.

The owner, Niki Lauda, said it was his opinion that the activation of a thrust reverser caused the Lauda Air Boeing 767-300 to break into pieces and plunge into a hilly jungle May 26, killing all 223 people aboard. He said it was not certain why the reverser deployed.

A spokesman for Boeing disputed the theory that this would cause the plane to crash. He said the U.S. government had required proof that the 767 could fly with a thrust reverser deployed before certifying it.

The reversers deflect the hot air thrust from jet engines to act as a brake. They are retracted during flight and are designed to be used only when the aircraft is on the ground, during landing.

Austrian Transport Minister Rudolf Streicher said in a statement Sunday that a computer fault that reversed the thrust of one engine could have caused the crash.

He said a cockpit voice recording being analyzed in Washington indicated that the pilots were trying to fix the malfunction when the plane crashed.

“No pilot in the world could have gotten the situation under control. It’s as if you were driving 300 k.p.h. (180 m.p.h.) and suddenly braked on one side, only an airplane has much more power,” said Lauda, a pilot himself and a former world motor racing champion.

In Seattle, Boeing spokesman Randy Harrison said an expert on thrust reversers is being sent to help Boeing experts already in Thailand. “However, at this point, the investigation will continue to examine the entire airplane and other evidence which I am not going to describe at this point, which does not support this conclusion that thrust reverser deployment was the sole cause of the accident,” he said.

Early speculation after the crash was that a bomb might have been to blame, but in recent days investigators at the scene had said a mechanical problem was a more likely cause.

A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Washington said Sunday that ordering inspection of all 767 jets in the United States is a possibility if a mechanical or computer failure appears to be the cause of the Thailand air disaster.

But the spokesman, Paul Steuke, said: “We are unable to do that until the cause or causes are determined. Sometimes that takes several days, weeks or a month or more.”