LIFE AFTER SQ006 - Orient Aviation

crises ranging from accidents and hijackingsto long delays. “It demonstrates that it paysto be prepared although you can never befully prepared. You can always find thingsthat did not work as well as they should havedone,” he said.“One of the important lessons we learntwas how important communication is in thefirst few hours after an accident. No matterhow great the pressure is on us we haveto resist stating anything other than whatis fact.”Dr Cheong described the crash of SQ006as the low point of his 27-year career withSIA, 17 of which have been spent as the headof the airline. He joined two years after itsformation in 1972 and has helped it growinto one of the most respected and profitableairlines in the world from its base in the islandstate of just four million people.SIA’s inflight service is a yardstick by whichother airlines are judged. Awards have beenmany. And, most importantly, it has been asafe airline.Add all these factors together and perhapsit explains why SIA was inundated with letters,faxes, e-mails and phone calls of support afterSQ006 crashed.Dr Cheong said there was a small fall inpassenger numbers from and through Taipeifor a time after the accident, but no significantdecline elsewhere.While SQ006 will occupy the minds ofSIA for a long time to come, the issues of theday have to be dealt with, said Dr Cheong.These include, for example, addressing steepaviation fuel price increases and the softeningof some markets in the region.At the time of the accident SIA was ona high. Earlier in the year a US$971 millioninvestment bought the airline group 49%of Britain’s Virgin Atlantic Airways. AnotherUS$140 million increased its holding in AirNew Zealand (AirNZ), now the Air NewZealand Ansett Group, to 25%, which givesSIA a powerful say in Ansett Australia, nowwholly-owned by AirNZ.A new first class cabin that leapfroggedall the opposition was bedded down, alongwith the introduction of other inflightentertainment innovations to keep it aheadSingapore Airlines: messages of support from travellers following the accidentShortcomings at Taipeicrash airportAviation authorities in Taiwaninvestigating the crash of a SingaporeAirlines B747-400 in which 83 people werekilled have said some facilities at Taipei’s ChiangKai-shek (CKS) were faulty.The Los Angeles-bound aircraft, with179 passengers and crew on board, slammedinto construction equipment and burst intoflames in a storm as it attempted to take offfrom a runway closed for repairs on October31 last year.“The CKS airport is old. It has been in usesince 1979. Some of the lighting systems, signsand marks were not up to the latest standardsof the International Civil Aviation Organisation(ICAO),” said Dr Kay Yong, the managingdirector of the Aviation Safety Council, whichis leading the investigation.Taiwan is not a member of ICAO, but hadpledged to observe the organisation’s standardsand regulations.The February 24 interim report was a presentationof facts. A final report, in December,will identify the cause of the crash.The three pilots survived the crash. Theytold the investigators they had been briefedbefore the flight that a parallel runway wasclosed for maintenance work, but had mistakenit for the assigned runway.Air traffic control was unable to spotthe mistake because the airport did not haveground radar to monitor the movement of thejet. Visibility was very poor on the night.Dr Yong said the closed runway had notbeen blocked off because it was being usedby taxi-ing planes.The investigator said one guiding lightthat could have helped direct the aircraft tothe correct runway was not working andanother was too dim. The lights were at thepoint where the pilots turned on to the wrongrunway. There also was a line painted on theroute leading to the closed runway, but noneto the correct runway.Singapore Airlines, which has said itwill take full responsibility for the accidentand pay compensation to the injured andfamilies of those killed, said it would wait forthe completion of the investigation beforecommenting.in the customer service race.Then came the headline grabbing US$8.6billion order for Airbus Industrie’s superjumbo, the 555-seat A380; firm orders for 10and options on another 15. SIA will be the firstcarrier to operate the Very Large Aircraft whenit comes into service in 2006.A few days later SIA announced a US$1.3billion deal with Boeing for six B747-400freighters, with options for another nine.Only four days before the Taipei accidentthe good news was still coming. SIA’s financialreport for the six months ending September30 announced SIA Group pre-tax profit rose89.3% on the same period in 1999, to S$1.4billion (US$793.8 million). Operating profitwas up S$206 million to S$739 million. Theairline’s pre-tax profit climbed 88% to S$1.21billion. Operating profit rose 52% to S$569million on revenue of S$4.62 billion.In recent weeks business as usual has includedanother new aircraft deal. In February,SIA ordered 20 Boeing 777-200s, 10 on firmorder with 10 options in a transaction valuedat US$4 billion on list prices applicable at timesof delivery. The aircraft will replace SIA’s fleetof 13 A310-300s.And the carrier is looking to add to itsMarch 01 | Orient Aviation | 19