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Singapore Airlines Flight 006 Wikipedia

Singapore Airlines Flight SQ006 was a flight that flew from Singapore Changi Airport, Singapore to Chiang Kai Shek International Airport, and from Taipei, Taiwan to Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California.

Near midnight on October 31, 2000, 9V-SPK, a Boeing 747-412, attempted to take off from a wrong runway at Chiang Kai-shek Airport under heavy rain as a typhoon was making its landfall east of Taipei. The crew took off from runway 05R, which had been closed for repairs following the passing of 2000 Pacific typhoon season|Typhoon Xangsane, instead of the assigned runway 05L (which parallels 05R). In consequence, the aircraft ran into the construction machinery. Under poor visibility due to heavy rain, the flight crew did not see the parked machineries on 05R until it was already a few hundred metres from the equipment. The pilot attempted to lift off immediately since it was impossible to stop the aircraft before hitting the machineries. The aircraft lifted off from the runway but did not gain sufficient altitute. A crane from one of the parked vehicle sliced open the belly of the rising aircraft, causing the aircraft to explode and tumble to the ground further on the same runway. A massive fire followed and the fuselage of the aircraft was completed engulfed in fire and destroyed. 79 of 159 passengers and 4 of 20 crew members died in the accident. The tower controller did not see the aircraft entering and subsequently rolling on the wrong runway since the poor visibility obscured him from seeing the runway from the tower at all. The lack of ground radar at the airport was also a contributing factor. It was reported that, however, there were two China Airlines Airbus A300 aircraft following immediately behind the accident aircraft to take off from 05R, whose cabin crew should notice the Singapore Airlines aircraft were entering a closed runway.

The flight route designation was changed to Singapore Airlines Flight 30 after the incident. Singapore Airlines also removed its "tropical megatop" livery after the incident since the accident aircraft 9V-SPK and another Boeing 747-400, 9V-SPL, were painted in that special livery rather that the standard Singapore Airlines livery to promote the new Business Class (Raffles Class) product.

Last Modified:   2005-11-04