SIA crash inquiries raise more questions than answers
SIA crash inquiries raise more questions than answers
TAIPEI (Agencies): Early inquiries into the Singapore Airlines
crash here raised more questions than answers, after
investigators said on Thursday they had found no trace that the
plane rolled across the grass separating two parallel runways.
Jung Kai, executive officer of Taiwan's aviation safety
council, however refused to say whether this finding supported
one theory that the ill-fated Boeing 747-400 took off from a
runway closed for repairs.
The jumbo jet, with 179 people on board, crashed on takeoff
from Taipei's Chiang Kai-Shek airport bound for Los Angeles late
Tuesday, killing 81 people.
Most of the wreckage was found on the closed 05R runway --
which was also littered with a heavy mechanical excavator and
cement blocks -- even though the plane had been supposed to use
the parallel 05L runway.
Another theory is that strong typhoon winds battering the
island had caused the plane to veer off the right runway onto the
closed one, which would however have left tyre marks in the 100-
metre (yard) wide patch of grass.
A mark found on the grass definitely did not belonging to the
ill-fated jet, Jung told reporters.
"Only the traces of the tires of Mandarin Airlines flight 738
were found on the grass linking the two runways," Jung said.
"What I am giving you now are only factual information. Any
analysis will be made from tomorrow (Friday) on when we are
joined with specialists from Singapore, the United Sates and
Australia," he said.
Jung also declined to comment on reports that some China
Airlines (CAL) pilots had witnessed the Singapore Airlines
aircraft using the wrong runway.
The China Times Express and Liberty Times reported on Thursday
that pilots on two CAL flights waiting behind the doomed SIA
plane for takeoff on the 05L runway saw the jumbo jet turn to the
parallel 05R runway.
The CAL pilots saw the plane bound for Los Angeles explode
immediately upon takeoff, the papers said.
But CAL spokesman Scott Shih told AFP: "What they saw with
their eyes that night might not be exact."
Visibility at the airport on Tuesday night was between 500-600
meters due to Typhoon Xangsane.
Meanwhile, grieving relatives turned their wrath against
Singapore Airlines on Thursday as investigators conducted their
probes.
The airline's officials, dealing with the first crash in the
history of one of Asia's most profitable and cash-rich carriers,
faced a storm of criticism from family members of the victims.
Two injured passengers died in hospital, pushing the death
toll from Tuesday night's crash to 81. Another 82 people were
injured and 16 were unhurt.
Investigation
Investigators combed wreckage at Taipei international airport
for clues into what caused the Boeing 747-400 to crash and will
get more help from U.S. aviation experts now en route to Taiwan.
But angry relatives of victims demanded immediate answers,
interrupting news conferences in Taipei and Singapore to rebuke
airline executives for leaving them in the dark for hours about
the fate of their loved ones.
"Everyone here knows who the dead are but we were still crying
back in Singapore and up till now, we know nothing. You owe us an
explanation!" a woman shouted at Cheong Choong Kong, SIA chief
executive officer and deputy chairman, in Taipei.
"Nobody knows anything, we were just there at the airport (in
Singapore), crying, crying, crying!" she cried.
Two dozen family members from Singapore arrived in Taipei on
Wednesday night to try to identify their relatives, whose bodies
lay in a makeshift morgue in an unused flight terminal. Many
bodies were burnt beyond recognition.
Cheong, visibly shaken by the outburst, said: "The need for
information and the need for accuracy and also the need to be
considerate to the feelings of the people concerned... we were in
a difficult position."
At Singapore's Changi Airport, a distraught man interrupted a
news conference by SIA spokesman Rick Clements.
"Tell the press the true story. Don't hide any more," said Tan
Yin Leong, whose brother Tan Yip Thong died in the crash.
"Are people's lives more important or SIA's reputation?"
The plane's Captain C.K. Foong, a Malaysian with more than
11,000 hours of flying time, said his plane struck "an object" on
takeoff as it barreled down the runway.
An airline official said on Wednesday investigators found a
wheel not belonging to the SIA plane in the wreckage.
This scenario was reminiscent of the July 25 crash of a
Concorde supersonic airliner outside Paris. A preliminary report
said a metal strip found on the runway likely burst a Concorde
tyre, triggering a chain of events that caused the crash.