Singapore Airlines (SIA) announced yesterday afternoon that it would offer US$400,000 each in compensation to the families of 81 passengers and crew who died in the crash of flight SQ006 at CKS International Airport in Taoyuan last Tuesday.
The amount surpasses Taiwan's previous highest compensation payment of NT$9.9 million (equal to US$300,000 at the time), paid by China Airlines (
PHOTO: AP
SIA will defray a total of US$32.4 million in respect of the 81 killings. The airline will also meet the medical expenses of the rest of the 98 injured passengers and crew, and will discuss compensation with each of them.
"This is a very sad situation and the airline hopes to help families through this terrible period by offering compensation without delay," said a statement released by the airline yesterday. "The families will receive a letter containing details of the offer within the next two weeks."
The airline made the decision before final conclusions of investigations into the cause of the crash have been made public and in the wake of director-general of the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA,
The airline did not make a public statement to respond to Chang, but has contacted him further, according to airline officials.
The Aviation Safety Council (ASC,
SIA accepted the preliminary finding later the same day on the evidence presented by the ASC. Cheong Choong-kong (張松光), the airline's deputy chairman and chief executive officer said: "As unlikely as it seemed at first, the plane was on the wrong runway. We accept this finding. We need to understand what the contributing factors were."
"It is critical that we understand exactly what happened and precisely what made the cockpit crew believe that they were on the correct runway," he said.
Before the ASC released its preliminary findings, the airline stated: "It was unlikely that an experienced captain could have taxied his aircraft on a darkened runway that was out of use."
The investigation is expected to be formally concluded within three months according to the ASC. But, signaling human error as a possible cause of the crash, the prosecutors' office in Taoyuan has barred the flight deck crew, captain Foong Chee Kong, along with co-pilots Ng Kheng Leng and Latiff Cyrano, from leaving Taiwan until the investigation is competed.
If the final conclusion of the investigation points to pilot error, "they must be charged with manslaughter on the basis of professional negligence with a maximum penalty of five years in jail, according to Taiwan's criminal law," lawyer Kenneth Chiu (
"But remission has commonly been granted in Taiwan since the five-year penalty is not heavy and they didn't do it on purpose," Chiu said. "The probable worst punishment the Singaporean authorities will impose would be to cancel their commercial pilot's licenses for good," Chiu said.
Prosecutor Song Kuo-yeh (
According to the ASC, a key further element in the investigation would be to confirm whether the side lights of runway 05R were on.
The closed runway, number 05R, runs parallel to the one the plane should have used, 05L.
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