Report On SQ006 Crash Expected Today
By Goh Sui Noi
Taiwan Correspondent
TAIPEI, Taiwan, 23 February 2001
-- Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council, which is leading the investigation
into the cause of the SQ006 crash last October, is to release a factual report
today that is likely to answer some burning questions surrounding the accident
as well as raise others.
The Singapore Airlines aircraft ploughed into
construction equipment and burst into flames while attempting take-off from a
runway partially closed for repairs, in typhoon weather on the night of Oct 31.
Eighty-three of the 179 people on board the plane
were killed.
The airline has accepted responsibility for the
pilots' error, but has also asked to know what could have led the well-trained
air crew to venture into the wrong runway.
Among the issues and questions surrounding the crash
were whether markings and lighting at the airport could have confused the pilots
and whether the Chiang Kai-shek airport's facilities were up to international
standards.
Today's report is likely to contain results of tests
on two damaged wires taken from the crash site that could determine whether the
edge lights of the closed runway were on, which could have misled the pilots
into thinking it was the right runway.
The report, which is said to run to over 300 pages,
will cover eight areas - air-traffic control, the airline's flight operations,
human factors, survival factors, the weather, ground operations and facilities,
the flight data and cockpit-voice recorders.
Yesterday, chief investigator Yong Kay dismissed a
Taipei Times report that quoted sources as saying that poor communication
between the flight's cockpit crew had led to the crash, as 'totally erroneous'.
He stressed that the sources quoted were not part of the investigation
team.
Taoyuan prosecutors investigating criminal liability
of personnel involved in the crash have said that they would use the safety
council's report as a reference in their decision whether to charge the three
pilots of the flight with professional negligence causing death, which carries a
jail sentence.
Source: The Straitstimes Interactice,
Singapore
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