Straits Times, Saturday 27 July 2002
Singapore Airlines yesterday terminated the services of the two pilots at the controls of Flight SQ 006 when it crashed in Taiwan two years ago, leaving 83 dead.
Captain Foong Chee Kong, 43 and First Officer Latiff Cyrano, 38, were told of the airline’s decision yesterday, three months after investigations by Singapore’s Transport Ministry concluded that the crash at Taipei’s Chiang Kai Shek airport was “an accident waiting to happen” and not the fault of any individuals.
The airline issued a statement, but did not give any reasons for its action.
Spokesman Rick Clements would only say that the airline was exercising a clause in the pilots’ contracts that allowed their services to be terminated with three months salary paid in lieu of notice. End.
Surely some mistake? If no individual is at fault, as officially stated by the Ministry, then, in the absence of any similarly official Singapore Airlines linkage of the terminations, they are for some other reason(s) than presumed by the world at large?
Should the airline not now release the hitherto unsuspected reason(s) for termination of the pilots, so as to at least satisfy the curiosity of the individuals and their families, not to say the wider interest of both the aviation community and the travelling public?