IIRC, when the SQ6 tragedy happened in Taiwan, the Taiwan authorities would not let the flight crew (all pilots survived) leave the country for a few weeks. They were allowed to remain in their hotels and free to move about but not leave the island, until Singapore's government protested and then the crew were allowed to leave upon the promise that they will return to answer questions. Under Taiwan's law they would have been liable for jail terms if found at fault.
Again the Singapore government defended them fiercely and the crew were not jailed.
SQ then quietly fired the Captain and CoPilot when they were found to be liable in the accident. While the Singapore government continued to protest deficiencies at the TPE airport. Their government's report on the accident differed substantially from the Taiwan government report on the same. With Singapore still insisting their crew were misled by missing runway lights, the fact that the partially closed runway 5R (the one they mistakenly took off from) should not have been partially open (part of it was being used as a taxi way during reconstruction) ,etc.
In all honestly the airport should have been closed as the typhoon was approaching. SQ6 was scheduled to be the last flight out that night as far as I can recall. But the winds were still within parameters and the flight crew wanted to leave ASAP. Perhaps they were fearful of what would happen to their jobs if they did not continue and they and their passengers suddenly needed hotel rooms for the next one to two days.
Last edited by armchairpilot94116; 14th Jul 2013 at 16:29.