| Associated
Press April 29, 2002 TAIPEI, Taiwan By ANNIE HUANG Related: Taiwan and Singapore issue reports on crash of jumbo jet NY Times A DISPUTE between aviation experts in Taiwan and Singapore heated up on Monday, April 29 with Taiwanese officials criticizing the Singaporeans for issuing a report that challenged the findings of Taiwan's investigation into a Singapore Airlines crash that killed 83 people in Taipei. The latest exchange came three days after Taiwanese investigators issued a final crash report that listed pilot mistakes and stormy weather as the chief probable causes of the crash in October 2000. The Los Angeles-bound jumbo jet took off on the wrong runway and slammed into construction equipment before bursting into flames. The deputy secretary of Singapore's Ministry of Transport, Jaspal Singh, on Friday accused Taiwanese investigators of focusing too much on pilot errors and glossing over problems at the airport, such as poorly marked runways and other safety lapses. On Monday, Kay Yong, managing director of Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council, said Singapore should not have released its separate findings because Singapore's views were already incorporated into the crash report. "I hope (Singapore) will adopt a positive attitude and improve its air safety and not pin too much on the issue of crash responsibility," Yong told reporters. In a statement directed at Singapore, Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council said: "It would be a waste of the huge investigation effort if blame and liability became the focus of attention, instead of safety improvement." The Taiwanese report said that while problems with runway lights and improperly placed signs made it difficult for the pilots to find the correct runway, the factors did not play a key role in the crash of Flight SQ 006. Instead, the report said the pilots could have prevented the accident if they had used airport navigation charts, requested taxi assistance during the storm or referred to heading references before takeoff. The accident was a serious blow to Singapore Airlines, which has long been considered one of the world's safest airlines. Before the Taipei crash, the airline had never directly experienced a fatal accident in 28 years of flying. It is still unclear whether Taiwan will prosecute the pilots. Following the crash, the pilots were held for nearly two months before being allowed to leave Taiwan. Despite the recent wrangle over the crash report, Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that the dispute over the crash report "won't affect Singapore-Taiwan ties." |
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