Family members of deceased passengers and crew of Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight SQ006, that crashed on Oct. 31, participated yesterday in a public memorial service held by the airline at Taoyuan County stadium, not far from the site of the accident.
Premier Chang Chun-hsung (張俊雄) led ministers of the Executive Yuan in mourning for those killed in the accident. Officials from Singapore and the airline's chief executive also attended the memorial.
Hundreds of kin of deceased crew members and passengers of the ill-fated flight that crashed at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, as a typhoon was lashing the island, paid their respects at the public service.
The memorial service began early in the morning with a Buddhist soul guiding ceremony followed by an ecumenical prayer service for the victims.
Reflecting the diversity of the victims, Buddhist, Taoist, Protestant and Roman Catholic, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim services were held before the public memorial. Some 2,500 mourners, including relatives of the victims, SIA executives, government officials, foreign representatives, volunteers and soldiers observed a minute of silence at the start of the service.
Pictures of the victims tied with black ribbons, and framed condolence messages from President Chen Shui-bian (
SIA said about 300 Taiwanese relatives joined the ceremony, while another 100 relatives were from Britain, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the US.
Premier Chang, in the company of members of his Cabinet, presented a floral tribute to the 82 people killed in the crash.
Singapore's Minister of Communications and Information Technology Yeo Cheow Tong (姚照東) led the Singaporean government representatives in paying their respects to the deceased.
Singapore Airline's CEO Cheong Choong Kong (張松光) also attended the ceremony.
The Malaysian pilot of the doomed flight, Captain Foong Chee Kong, and his Singaporean first officers Latiff Cyrano and Ng Kheng Leng, did not attend the memorial because "the investigation is still ongoing," according to SIA.
The three men have been barred from leaving the island pending the conclusion of an inquiry into the causes of the crash.
Meanwhile, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA,
The CAA's decision followed criticism that a lack of ground radar had prevented air traffic controllers from alerting the pilots of the SIA jumbo jet that they were attempting to take off from the wrong runway.
The CAA said that it will appropriate a budget of between NT$400 million and NT$600 million for the purchase of two ground radar units for the fiscal year 2002.
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