SIA crash inquiries raise more questions than answers<\/p>\n
TAIPEI (Agencies): Early inquiries into the Singapore Airlines
\ncrash here raised more questions than answers, after
\ninvestigators said on Thursday they had found no trace that the
\nplane rolled across the grass separating two parallel runways.<\/p>\n
Jung Kai, executive officer of Taiwan's aviation safety
\ncouncil, however refused to say whether this finding supported
\none theory that the ill-fated Boeing 747-400 took off from a
\nrunway closed for repairs.<\/p>\n
The jumbo jet, with 179 people on board, crashed on takeoff
\nfrom Taipei's Chiang Kai-Shek airport bound for Los Angeles late
\nTuesday, killing 81 people.<\/p>\n
Most of the wreckage was found on the closed 05R runway --
\nwhich was also littered with a heavy mechanical excavator and
\ncement blocks -- even though the plane had been supposed to use
\nthe parallel 05L runway.<\/p>\n
Another theory is that strong typhoon winds battering the
\nisland had caused the plane to veer off the right runway onto the
\nclosed one, which would however have left tyre marks in the 100-
\nmetre (yard) wide patch of grass.<\/p>\n
A mark found on the grass definitely did not belonging to the
\nill-fated jet, Jung told reporters.<\/p>\n
\"Only the traces of the tires of Mandarin Airlines flight 738
\nwere found on the grass linking the two runways,\" Jung said.<\/p>\n
\"What I am giving you now are only factual information. Any
\nanalysis will be made from tomorrow (Friday) on when we are
\njoined with specialists from Singapore, the United Sates and
\nAustralia,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Jung also declined to comment on reports that some China
\nAirlines (CAL) pilots had witnessed the Singapore Airlines
\naircraft using the wrong runway.<\/p>\n
The China Times Express and Liberty Times reported on Thursday
\nthat pilots on two CAL flights waiting behind the doomed SIA
\nplane for takeoff on the 05L runway saw the jumbo jet turn to the
\nparallel 05R runway.<\/p>\n
The CAL pilots saw the plane bound for Los Angeles explode
\nimmediately upon takeoff, the papers said.<\/p>\n
But CAL spokesman Scott Shih told AFP: \"What they saw with
\ntheir eyes that night might not be exact.\"<\/p>\n
Visibility at the airport on Tuesday night was between 500-600
\nmeters due to Typhoon Xangsane.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, grieving relatives turned their wrath against
\nSingapore Airlines on Thursday as investigators conducted their
\nprobes.<\/p>\n
The airline's officials, dealing with the first crash in the
\nhistory of one of Asia's most profitable and cash-rich carriers,
\nfaced a storm of criticism from family members of the victims.<\/p>\n
Two injured passengers died in hospital, pushing the death
\ntoll from Tuesday night's crash to 81. Another 82 people were
\ninjured and 16 were unhurt.<\/p>\n
Investigation<\/p>\n
Investigators combed wreckage at Taipei international airport
\nfor clues into what caused the Boeing 747-400 to crash and will
\nget more help from U.S. aviation experts now en route to Taiwan.<\/p>\n
But angry relatives of victims demanded immediate answers,
\ninterrupting news conferences in Taipei and Singapore to rebuke
\nairline executives for leaving them in the dark for hours about
\nthe fate of their loved ones.<\/p>\n
\"Everyone here knows who the dead are but we were still crying
\nback in Singapore and up till now, we know nothing. You owe us an
\nexplanation!\" a woman shouted at Cheong Choong Kong, SIA chief
\nexecutive officer and deputy chairman, in Taipei.<\/p>\n
\"Nobody knows anything, we were just there at the airport (in
\nSingapore), crying, crying, crying!\" she cried.<\/p>\n
Two dozen family members from Singapore arrived in Taipei on
\nWednesday night to try to identify their relatives, whose bodies
\nlay in a makeshift morgue in an unused flight terminal. Many
\nbodies were burnt beyond recognition.<\/p>\n
Cheong, visibly shaken by the outburst, said: \"The need for
\ninformation and the need for accuracy and also the need to be
\nconsiderate to the feelings of the people concerned... we were in
\na difficult position.\"<\/p>\n
At Singapore's Changi Airport, a distraught man interrupted a
\nnews conference by SIA spokesman Rick Clements.<\/p>\n
\"Tell the press the true story. Don't hide any more,\" said Tan
\nYin Leong, whose brother Tan Yip Thong died in the crash.<\/p>\n
\"Are people's lives more important or SIA's reputation?\"<\/p>\n
The plane's Captain C.K. Foong, a Malaysian with more than
\n11,000 hours of flying time, said his plane struck \"an object\" on
\ntakeoff as it barreled down the runway.<\/p>\n
An airline official said on Wednesday investigators found a
\nwheel not belonging to the SIA plane in the wreckage.<\/p>\n
This scenario was reminiscent of the July 25 crash of a
\nConcorde supersonic airliner outside Paris. A preliminary report
\nsaid a metal strip found on the runway likely burst a Concorde
\ntyre, triggering a chain of events that caused the crash.<\/p>",
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