Reports that the pilot of Singapore Airlines flight SQ006 took off the wrong runway are expected to add to the economic fallout for the squeeky-clean airline.
"The plane did take off from the wrong runway," Rick Clements, vice-president for public affairs for SIA, told a press conference. The crash at Taipei's main airport on Tuesday night killed at least 81 and injured dozens more among the 179 passengers and crew on board.
SIA's statement prompted a crisis of confidence in the company's shares, which plunged 5.7 percent on the local bourse.
The Singapore government said it took the preliminary findings seriously and pledged "all possible action" to prevent a recurrence of the accident.
While the costs of the crash have yet to be tallied, Asia's ninth largest by passengers carried and second largest by cargo carried, will likely have to pay higher insurance premiums in the future.
"SIA will have a lot of expenses from this for a while," said Jim Eckes, managing director of Indoswiss Aviation, an aviation consultant. "If they're smart they'll sit down and settle with as many as possible as soon as possible." Under the Warsaw convention, airlines are liable for a maximum of US$75,000 a victim in a plane accident, analysts said.
With the current death toll, SIA's maximum liability under the international legal guideline would be US$6.08 million. Further, a new 747-400 jet costs at least US$174.5 million at list price.
On top of these figures, SIA has already given out US$5,000 for each victim of this crash for immediate expenses, part of US$25,000 it pledged hours after the crash to help next of kin.
SIA will also bear the costs of crisis management due to the accident.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
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