I don't see how SIA had any alternative but to fire both Foong and Cyrano. Would it have been fair to reinstate them at the ranks they held at the time of the accident? Demote them and let them continue flying? Give them desk jobs? As others have pointed out, any pilot could have made the mistake of taking off from the wrong runway that night but, unfortunately, they were the ones who committed this particular error. Somebody has to carry the can. In this case, two undoubtedly fine pilots had to pay the price - yet another sad outcome of this tragic accident.
What I wonder is, would this punishment have been meted out if there had been no fatalities (if, for example, the aircraft had run into ground equipment early in the takeoff run and only suffered external damage without breaking up and catching fire)? I am thinking of the aftermath of QF1's overrun at Bangkok in Sept/99, which resulted from a gross error of judgment by the captain (who wasn't even PF). The aircraft (a 744) was so substantially damaged that it was essentially a write-off but Qantas, in order to preserve their record of no hull losses in their history, spent the replacement cost on repairs. But, there were no significant injuries. As far as I know, the captain continues to fly in the LHS for Qantas.
Does anyone know what the fate was of the China Airlines crew who took off from a taxiway at Anchorage earlier this year, hit an obstruction on lift-off, and blithely continued on to Taipei? Temporary suspension? Rap on the knuckles? The sack?
Rockhound