Council defends crash probe

The Cabinet-level Aviation Safety Council (ASC) said yesterday that there has been no political interference in the investigation of a Singapore Airlines crash in 2000 that killed 83 people. "The council has investigated the case impartially and indepen-dently," ASC Director Kay Yong (戎凱) stressed. The Los Angeles-bound flight SQ006 with 179 people on board exploded in a fireball at Taiwan's Chiang Kai-shek International Airport on Oct. 31, 2000, after hitting construction equipment parked on a closed runway. It was the first fatal incident in the carrier's history. The ASC has completed a detailed investigative report on the disaster, which is scheduled to be released at 2pm today. Singapore authorities told their news media last week that the ASC has not followed the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization and has neglected to let relevant Singapore personnel take part in the probe. Yong said the accusation was untrue and unfair.