Brent Hannon/TAIPEI
The captain aboard the Singapore Airlines (SIA) Boeing 747-400 which crashed after trying to take off from closed runway 05R at Taipei on 31 October, ignored hints from both first officers to use the Para Visual Display (PVD) indicator.
According to a report just published by the Taiwan Aviation Safety Council (ASC), SIA captain Foong Chee Kong chose instead to rely on visual indicators.
The 747-400, operating SIA flight SQ006, crashed after it struck concrete barriers and construction equipment, killing 83 of 179 people on board, when the aircraft attempted to take off from Chiang Kai-shek International airport. Weather conditions at the time of the accident were poor, with heavy rain, winds of 50kt (93km/h), and visibility at 500m-600m (1,640ft-1,970ft).
ASC managing director Kay Yong does not draw conclusions from the report, but indicated these could emerge in about four months when the next bulletin is issued. Yong says the cockpit voice recorder transcript went as follows:
First Officer: "PVD hasn't lit up." Captain: "Yeah, we gonna line up first." Second First Officer: "We need 45 degrees." Captain: "Not on yet, er, PVD, huh. Never mind we can see the runway not so bad. OK ready, eh, so 010 is from the left OK."
PVD is used in low visibility situations and Yong says that runway 05R is a visual flight rules runway, and has no localizer, so the PVD cannot be activated on that runway. SQ006 was cleared for take-off on runway 05L, which has a localizer.
The first 1,000m of runway05R were in use as a taxiway at the time of the accident, and its green centreline taxi lights were on, says Yong. There were no other visible indications the runway was closed, although airlines had been told in September that the remainder of runway 05R was under repair.
Evidence also suggests that the 05R runway sidelights were either dim or off at the time of the accident. The lights have five settings, says Yong. Video from the 104 ground surveillance cameras at Chiang Kai-shek airport suggests the 05R runway side lights were off.
Source: Flight International
