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Singapore crash: The pilot missed clear warnings

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November 4, 2000 

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Singapore Airlines apologized Friday after investigators discovered that the pilot of a Los Angeles-bound jumbo jet missed clear warnings and crashed while trying to take off on a runway full of construction equipment.

The Boeing 747-400 snapped into three pieces and burst into flames Tuesday, killing 81 of the 179 people aboard. The sole Canadian on board escaped with minor injuries.

"This is a terrible tragedy and we are deeply sorry," Cheong Choong Kong, deputy chairman and chief executive of Singapore Airlines, told reporters Friday night in Singapore.

The crash was the airline's first fatal disaster in 28 years of operation.

"They were our pilots, it was our aircraft, the aircraft should not have been on that runway and ... we accept full responsibility," Cheong said.

Relatives were gathered Friday at a crematorium and funeral centre outside Taipei to identify the remains of loved ones when the cause of the crash was revealed.

Taiwanese investigators said it was too soon to say whether Capt. Chee Kong Foong should be held responsible for the accident. Foong was being kept in Taiwan for questioning.

Foong missed some key warnings, including a routine preflight briefing paper that warned of the hazard on the runway under construction and two big signs indicating the number of the runway he mistakenly went down.

Despite the apologies, Singaporean officials insisted the investigation was not yet complete and suggested there may have been some mitigating factors.

"We will be looking at human factors and also what could be done to make airports safer," Cheong said. He said it was "critical that we understand exactly what happened and precisely what made the cockpit crew believe that they were on the correct runway."

Taipei air traffic controllers had no way of knowing Foong turned onto the wrong runway because an approaching typhoon had made visibility too poor to see the jetliner from the control tower and the airport does not have ground radar that could have detected the mistake.

"On a clear day, the tower can see the whole thing," Kay Yong, managing director of Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council, said late Friday. "Weather plays a factor."

Some major U.S. airports also lack such systems, which can be costly and complicated, although officials are trying to have more of them installed, said Alfred Dickinson, a U.S. National Transportation Safety Board investigator who was in Taipei to help with the inquiry into the crash.

After airport controllers cleared Foong to take off on the open runway, 5-L, he acknowledged the instruction by radio but somehow ended up on the blocked runway, 5-R.

"We can see the runway, not so bad," Foong said as he turned his jet to accelerate for takeoff, according to the jet's "black box" cockpit voice recorder. The separate flight data recorder documented the faulty course.

As Foong pushed toward takeoff speed, he saw a big concrete block straight ahead that had been put in place to close off part of the runway being repaired, but it was too late to abort. The part of the runway where Foong took his wrong turn had been kept open for jets to taxi on, Taiwanese officials said.

"The captain said -- using an explicit four-letter word -- he said, 'There's something there,'" Yong said.

Soon after, "there was a series of impact sounds and four seconds later the tape ended."

The 747 hit the concrete block before crashing into more construction equipment, apparently including two cranes, scattering wreckage across the runway.

In addition to the poor visibility, there were suggestions that the lighting on the open and closed runways might have caused some confusion.

Taiwanese officials said some of the lights on the wrong runway were illuminated, and a few lights on the correct runway were knocked out by another flight that veered slightly off-course earlier.

Nevertheless, airline experts said Foong had no excuses for his mistake.

"Every major airport in the world has its runways marked very carefully," said Jim Eckes, an aviation consultant in Japan with IndoSwiss Aviation. "The letters are very clear and very big. If he cannot see that marking, then he shouldn't take off. He's got the lives of all the passengers in his hands.

"In this case there were two co-pilots on the flight. If none of them can see it, that's a pretty good indication not to take off."

Dozens of Americans, exhausted and grieving, arrived in Taipei on Friday to identify their dead or to be reunited with survivors. Twenty-three Americans were among the passengers killed.

Khan Mahmood of Atlanta said he was disappointed with how Singapore Airlines first handled the crash. "All I can say is I lost my parents as well as my sister."

Grief hung heavy at the crematorium and funeral centre as relatives filed into large refrigerated containers to identify the dead.

"Oh, I can't believe it," one woman wailed as others tried to comfort her.

Francois Parent, the sole Canadian aboard the jet, said he was lucky to survive.

Parent, a Montreal engineer, burned his hands as he made his way towards an emergency exit after the crash.

"I saw a ball of flame and I was scared," he said Wednesday.

"But I was more afraid of the smoke. I thought I was going to suffocate," said Parent, who was in Asia on a business trip.