Forty-five survivors and relatives of those killed in a Singapore Airlines crash in Taiwan have filed lawsuits against the airline and Taiwanese authorities, their lawyers said yesterday.
The damages suits were filed in Los Angeles by the US-based Nolan Law Group ahead of a one-year deadline to take legal action.
"Nolan Law Group is representing 45 survivors and families who lost loved ones in the October 31, 2000, crash of Singapore Airlines Flight SQ 006," the law firm said on its Web site.
"Investigation continues and documents have been obtained from Singapore Air through discovery, and depositions have been requested," it said.
The Boeing 747-400 bound for Los Angeles broke apart and burst into flames at Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek airport when it smashed into construction machinery during a takeoff attempt on the wrong runway during a storm.
Eighty-three passengers and crew were killed and 96 survived. The runway had been closed for repairs.
A US district judge ruled last year that all cases related to the crash will be heard in Los Angeles.
The suits were filed against Singapore Airlines, the Taiwanese government, Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration and Chiang Kai-shek airport authorities, the Straits Times newspaper said.
Suits have also been lodged against aircraft-maker Boeing and BFGoodrich, which manufactured some of the plane's accessories, the report said.
The plaintiffs have rejected Singapore Airlines's offer of US$400,000 for those who died and US$20,000 for survivors.
"It's not about the money," said lawyer Subhas Anandan, whose brother, chief steward Surash Anandan, was among the fatalities.
"If we take up the compensation offer, it effectively means that we lose the right to question the airline or any other authority about the incident," he told the Straits Times.
More than 150 family members, friends and survivors marked the anniversary of the crash at a memorial in Taipei yesterday.
Two of the 13 flight attendants who survived the crash have returned to work while the rest were either recovering or had asked to be grounded.
Steward Amir Husin, 34, who has been certified by doctors as fit to fly again told the newspaper: "The memory will be with me the rest of my life. I can't erase it totally. If I say I don't have nightmares and I don't think about it, I would be telling a lie."
Preliminary findings by Taiwanese aviation authorities investigating the crash admitted shortcomings in the airport facilities and said that using the wrong runway for take off was a principal factor in the tragedy.
Taiwanese investigators have yet to release a final report.
Last week, the Singapore High Court dismissed a damages suit against Singapore Airlines subsidiary SilkAir for a 1997 crash in Indonesia in which all 104 people aboard were killed.
Justice Tan Lee Meng said in his ruling that the plaintiffs -- families representing six victims -- had not proven their allegations that a suicidal pilot deliberately crashed the aircraft into a river.
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