The Los Angeles-bound Boeing 747-400 jet exploded on October 31, 2000 after smashing into construction equipment when trying to take off from a closed runway at Taipei airport.

Taiwan's aviation safety authorities blamed pilot error for the tragedy as the plane had been on a runway that was closed for reconstruction and parallel to the runway cleared for the takeoff.

Charges of manslaughter due to negligence against Captain Foong Chee Kong, a Malaysian national, and First Officer Latiff Cyrano, a Singaporean, were conditionally suspended for three years, prosecutor Chiang Yuan-chen from the Taoyuan district court told AFP.

The charges would be lifted if they complied with certain conditions during the three-year probation period and did not commit any crime in Taiwan, Chiang said.

The conditions include that the two pilots are banned from operating any aircraft which enters or leaves Taiwan and that they perform community service for 240 hours in Singapore, she said.

"And after the observation period, the conditionally suspended prosecutions would be automatically dropped."

The same charge was dropped against Second Officer Ng Kheng Leng, a Singapore national, because he was not involved in the actual operation of the doomed flight SQ600, she said.

The decision was taken due to the better-than-average flying record of the two pilots, the remorse they had showed to the victims and the low visibility on the stormy night of the accident, Chiang said.

She said her decision was expected to be endorsed by the public prosecutors' office at high court.

Eighty-three of the 179 people aboard the plane were killed in the crash, the first in the airlines' 28-year history.

In a brief statement, Singapore Airlines said "we welcome the move not to prosecute the pilots", but made no comment on other conditions laid down.

The International Federation of Airlines Pilots' Associations had objected to any prosecutions against the three pilots.

Singapore authorities have contested the Taiwanese finding blaming pilot error for the crash, saying a lack of lights and physical barriers led the pilots onto the runway that was closed for repairs.

The three pilots returned to Singapore in December 2000 and came back to Taiwan last month for further questioning.

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