The investigation quashed speculations that incorrect lighting or insufficient signs at Taipei's Chiang Kei-shek international airport had prompted pilots of the Boeing 747-400 to use a wrong runway for takeoff on October 31, 2000.

Taiwan's aviation authorities informed all airlines of the closure of the 05R runway for repairs on September 13, 2000, the United Daily News cited officials of Taoyuan prosecutors' office as saying.

The pilots were supposed to use 05L runway, parallel to 05R, but the aircraft ended up on the wrong one despite repeated confirmation with the control tower that they would use the 05L, it said.

The Los Angeles-bound jetliner, carrying 179 passengers and crew, slammed into construction equipment and burst into flames in the takeoff.

The edge lights on the closed 05R were lit during a typhoon on the night of the crash, which the prosecutors concluded was the only design flaw in the 20-year-old lighting system, the paper said.

Prosecutors also reckoned that warning signs were not necessary at the starting point of the 05R runway because a segment of the runway was still in use for taxiing, the paper added.

However, the prosecutors' office spokesman Chiang Kui-chang denied the reported accounts were final, saying the office would make conclusions based on a final investigation report from the Aviation Safety Council.

"The council is expected to release the final investigation results in six months. We would then make judgment on who should shoulder responsibility of the accident," Chiang told AFP.

The council, which is leading the investigation into the crash, released a report in February presenting all facts about the disaster but analysis of the facts was needed to identify the actual cause, he added.

The pilots - Captain Foong Chee Kong and Latiff Cyrano and Ng Kheng Leng - all survived the accident.

The three had told investigators here that they were aware of the closed runway but mistook it for the assigned one prior to takeoff, according to the February report.

The control tower was unable to spot the mistake as the airport did not have a ground radar system to monitor movement of the aircraft, it said.