Singapore Airlines Flight 006

Singapore Airlines Flight 006
The crashed Boeing 747-400 9V-SPK
Accident summary
Accident type	Start accident
place	Taiwan Taoyuan Airport
date	October 31, 2000
Fatalities	83
Survivors	96
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 747-400
operator	Singapore Airlines
Mark	9V-SPK
Departure airport	Singapore
Stopover	Taipei
Destination airport	los Angeles
Passengers	159
crew	20th
Lists of aviation accidents

Singapore Airlines flight 006 was a scheduled flight of the Singapore Airlines , which was to run on October 31, 2000 from Singapore with a stopover in Taipei to Los Angeles . The Boeing 747-400 used had an accident while taking off from Taiwan Taoyuan Airport , killing 83 of 179 people on board.

Aircraft

The machine used was a Boeing 747-400 with the production number MSN 28023 and the aircraft registration 9V-SPK , which was newly delivered to Singapore Airlines on January 21, 1997 and has been continuously operated by Singapore Airlines since then. Their last technical check took place about six weeks before the accident, on September 16, 2000. No defects were found. At the time of the accident, it wore a colorful special paint called "Tropical" .

Course of the accident

Up until the stopover in Taipei, the flight from Singapore was normal. After a stopover there, the machine rolled to take off for the onward flight to Los Angeles, for which runway 05L had been assigned to it. However, instead of following the taxiway a good 200 meters to the correct runway, the machine turned too early onto runway 05R, which at the time ran parallel . At that time, however, this was severely shortened and closed due to construction work. Neither the cockpit crew nor the tower noticed the mistake and the Boeing 747-400 began the take-off run .

At the moment of take-off, the machine collided with concrete barriers and construction equipment in the rear third of the runway. It hit the ground and was torn in several pieces and caught fire. Of 179 people on board, including 159 passengers and 20 crew members, 96 were rescued from the rubble, some seriously injured.

causes

Why exactly the crew chose the wrong runway could not be conclusively clarified. The cockpit crew was actually aware of the closure of runway 05R due to construction work, as a corresponding NOTAM had been published. According to the official final report of the Taiwanese Aviation Security Council ASC , however, the crew apparently failed to study the taxiway from the parking position via the taxiways to the assigned runway 05L using the existing site plans and to verify it again (by verbal announcements), or to verify it Pay attention to signs and markings. In addition, it should have been noticed that the wrong runway was lit differently than the correct one (white) due to the closure as a runway , namely for use as a pure taxiway (blue or green). The Singapore Ministry of Transport, Singapore Airlines itself and IFALPA among others agreed with the ASC report on essential points, but criticized it as incomplete and one-sided. For their part, they stated that important lighting elements on the floor did not work or did not work properly; In addition, the closed runway should have been marked with an X and barriers should have been erected well in front of the actual construction site.

At the time of the accident, there was heavy rain and winds caused by Typhoon "Xangsane" . The visibility was only about 450 meters. The pressure on the pilots to start the aircraft under these conditions in good time before a possible weather-related closure of the airport therefore also had an influence.

consequences

Dozens of survivors, but also relatives of the victims, initiated lawsuits against the airline and various Taiwanese authorities. Despite the decision of a senior Taiwanese public prosecutor not to prosecute the pilots within the first three years after the accident, Singapore Airlines decided in 2002 to fire the pilot and his first officer.

Immediately after the accident, Singapore Airlines renamed the flight number SQ030 and later SQ028. At the time of the accident, the crashed 9V-SPK was wearing the colorful special paint scheme Tropical , which was intended to advertise special services in the airline's first and business class. Only a few days after the accident, the flying sister machine 9V-SPL , which had the same paintwork, was banned from starting and was quickly repainted. Since then, Singapore Airlines aircraft have only received a special coating in exceptional cases, otherwise they have the standard paintwork or that of the Star Alliance .

In the meantime, a new runway has been put into operation on the other side of the terminal building in Taipei, which is now called 05R , while the runway running parallel to 05L now functions as a taxiway NC ; ground radar was also installed.

filming

The disaster was recreated for the Canadian television series Mayday - Alarm im Cockpit and aired in 2012 as the third episode of season 12 under the title Caution to the Wind (Typhoon Take-Off) . The German title of the episode is Gone by the Taifun .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ airfleets.net - Boeing 747 - MSN 28023 (English) accessed on September 17, 2011
2. ↑ news.bbc.co.uk - Boeing's workhorse (English) October 31, 2000
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
4. ↑ Crash of Singapore Airlines Flight SQ006. In: Singapore Infopedia, statement by the Singapore government. Retrieved July 29, 2016 .