SQ006 Pilots summoned to hearing in Taipei
 

Taiwan summons Singapore pilots for probe.
Reuters

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan prosecutors reviewing an official report which blamed pilot error for the deadly runway crash of a Singapore Airlines passenger jet have summoned the plane's flight crew to court to explain themselves.
"We've asked the pilots to appear at a court hearing to give them an opportunity to fully explain and make a rebuttal," said prosecutor Chiang Yuan-chen, who is in charge of the investigation.

Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council said last week that pilot error and bad weather were the most probable causes of the October 2000 accident that killed 83 people, but Singapore has disputed some of the findings and said airport operations were also to blame.

It was unclear whether the pilots would attend the hearing. Singapore Airlines refused to comment on the development.

Malaysian pilot Foong Chee Kong and his first officers Ng Kheng Leng and Latif Cyrano, both Singaporeans, were detained in Taiwan for nearly two months after the incident, the first fatal crash in the history of Singapore Airlines.

Taking off in a typhoon, Flight SQ006, carrying 179 people, exploded in a fireball at Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek international airport after hitting construction equipment parked on a closed runway parallel to the one it was supposed to be using.

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I hope that ALPA-S has consulted with IFALPA regarding a possible defence for ther crew of SQ006 should this turn out to be a turkey shoot. "Hearings" of this nature are not recommended as "anything you say, may be held against you in a court of law".

Why can't they hold a hearing in an independant country in front of an independant judiciary ? This business will really test IFALPA's fortitude and effectiveness in defending pilot's rights to a fair hearing.