Fri, Nov 03, 2000 page1

• Airliner may have used wrong runway

  FLIGHT SQ006 Although no firm conclusions have been made, preliminary findings suggest that the ill-fated Singapore Airlines plane took off from a runway that had been closed for repair work

  • By Chuang Chi-ting / STAFF REPORTER
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  Early inquiries into the crash of Singapore Airlines flight SQ006 suggest that the plane may have taken off from a runway that had been closed for repairs.

  According to the nation's Aviation Safety Council (ASC, 飛安委員會), preliminary findings indicate that the doomed Boeing 747-400 attempted to take off from runway 5R, which had been closed and was cluttered with construction equipment.

  

  A backhoe, hit by Singapore Airlines Flight SQ006 on Tuesday night, lies upturned on the runway of the CKS International Airport yesterday.

  PHOTO: TONY K. YAO

  Runway 5R is parallel to runway 5L, from which the plane was supposed to take off.

  "Initial facts are that the plane's wreckage and debris are mostly scattered on the 5R runway, and we don't rule out any possibilities, including the pilot may have mistakenly attempted to take off from the wrong runway," said Kay Yong (戎凱), managing director of the ASC.

  Still, Yong was unwilling to conclusively say what caused the crash, which killed 81 people.

  Investigators yesterdayv completed examination of the flight's data and cockpit voice recorders. They also continued to take ground surveys and aerial photos.

  "We need to gather more information from interviews with the flight's crew members and pilots, as well as flight dispatchers," Yong said. "In addition, we still need time to sort out the sequence of events in the incident using more complete information ... We are still putting things together."

  Yong said investigators would provide a more complete factual picture this evening to "help clear up rumors."

  The Liberty Times reported yesterday that pilots on two China Airlines (華航) flights waiting behind the ill-fated Singapore Airlines plane for takeoff on the 05L runway saw the jumbo jet turn to the parallel 05R runway.

  The CAL pilots saw the plane explode immediately upon takeoff, the report said.

  But aviation council officials were unwilling to comment on the report.

  Singapore Airlines, however, has ruled out the theory that the plane took off from the wrong runway.

  Another theory investigators have been pursuing is that strong winds had caused the plane to veer off the 5L runway onto the closed one, which would have left tire marks in the 100m wide patch of grass separating the two.

  But a mark found on the grass definitely did not belong to the ill-fated jet, aviation officials said. The mark, they said, resulted from a minor accident involving a Mandarin Airlines (華信航空) plane a little earlier in the day.

  Yong also noted that the council has received "conflicting opinions on whether the lights alongside the 5R runway, where some construction was going on, were lit up."

  If the lights were on, the pilot may have believed the 5R runway was open.

  "These lights play an important role in aviation safety," Yong said.

  The council also said that some lights along the 5L runway were damaged because of the minor accident involving Mandarin Airlines.

  The council reconfirmed yesterday that visibility on Tuesday night's crash was greater than the minimum requirement of 200m.

  The council will also examine whether the pilot had been given accurate meteorological information. Though a typhoon was approaching Taiwan on the night of the disaster, wind speeds recorded at the time were within acceptable limits.

  Yong said aviation experts from the US, including members of the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board, had planned to meet last night to clear up key points in the investigation.

  "Pratt and Whitney, the manufacturer of the jetliner's engine, the Boeing company and a Singapore team will also join our meeting," Yong said.

  Yong said representatives of National Transportation Safety Board of Australia would also be acting as observers during the full course of the investigation of the accident.
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