Last Sunday, former BWIA/SIA Captain Ralph Thompson shared his thoughts about the crash of the Singapore Airlines jumbo jetliner on take off from Taipei's Chiang Kai-Shek International airport. At the time of our interview he was clear that it was difficult to say exactly what had caused the crash of SQ006.
Since then investigators have confirmed that pilot error apparently played a big role in the crash of the Los Angeles-bound Boeing 747- 400 that killed 81 people during a major storm at Taipei's airport late at night.
A member of the investigative team, Song Keo-yeh, said that the plane was on the wrong runway and plowed into the construction equipment, including two cranes and scraps of steel. He has said that the pilot, Captain Chee Kong Foong, who survived with injuries, knew which runway he was supposed to be on and had not been misdirected by the control tower. Before taking off, the pilot told the tower that he was at runway 5-L, when actually he was at the one alongside it, 5-R which was under repair.
Now that the cause of the crash is known, Captain Thompson explained "pilots refer to this as Murphy's Law. Things can be compounded by all the events taking place, such as, the typhoon close by. Very strong winds associated with the typhoon may have blown away the signposts that would have told the pilot there is a runway under reconstruction and so he obviously did not see the crosses or little boards which are usually there to tell him that the runway is not in use.
"With poor visibility you may just be able to see 50 or 75 feet of the center line of the taxiway in front of you as you are taxiing out for takeoff, and it is very, very possible you could miss a turn. The poor visibility would have prevented the Control Tower from seeing the airplane getting onto the wrong runway. If there is ground radar, they will tell you that you just overshot your turning, and will request that SQOO6 turn at the next turnoff. With no ground radar and torrential rain blowing and gusting the air traffic controllers can't see you from the Tower, which leads to disaster.
"Also at the back of the Captain's mind, he has the company at heart and would be trying to get the aircraft out of Taipei and not let it be damaged by the oncoming typhoon. All those things come together as Murphy's law and will get you eventually when all taken into consideration."
However, says Thompson "the buck ends in the lap of the Captain, who has the last decision, and is wholly and solely to blame in this particular case because even though there may not have been signs, there are things called Notams. These are notices to pilots telling them the state of the runways, if any may be in a state of disrepair, where men and equipment are working at how many thousands of feet up and down a runway and what equipment is being used. Captain Foong should have had that information. When you go in to file a flight plan all this information is normally given to the co-pilot, but the Captain should read the briefing sheet which tells him if any runway is not being used, why and where the construction is being done etc.
"The decision to take off in the weather conditions that night would have been a difficult one, but the thing is the airport was not closed so that conditions surrounding his departure may have been within limits of the airplane, and all prevailing conditions that affect the performance of an airplane may have been met and he decided it was good enough and within limits to take off. His only big mistake is that he took off on the wrong one and has nobody else to blame but himself.
"The Captain had obviously reached V1 speed which is the speed beyond which you cannot stop the airplane in what footage is left of the runway because you are going too fast to stop and so beyond that speed you are committed to take off. He obviously saw the obstruction ahead of him just as he was arriving at VR or rotate speed which is when you are about to get airborne, and hit whatever construction equipment was in front of him. And this really saved his life being just above the construction when the airplane broke and sent his portion of the plane free."
What of the future of Captain Chee Kong Foong?
According to Captain Thompson "deliberately taking off on the wrong runway leading to the death of 81 people is tantamount to manslaughter" so it would seem that this Captain could face criminal charges. In any event it is going to be difficult to live with having to accept the blame for an accident of this nature, much less to fly an aircraft again.