10 Indians killed in plane crash

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, NOV. 1. Ten of the 11 Indian passengers on board the ill-fated Singapore Airlines plane, which crashed at Taipei airport last night, were among the 79 persons killed.

The only Indian who survived the crash was Mr. Koppaka Somasekhara Varaprasad. The other Indians on board were: Mrs. Kommera Sangeeta, Mr. Marellapudi Surya Narayana, Mohammed Moinuddin Khan, Mrs. Nooorjehan Begum, Mr. P. Poddar, Mr. Raju Penmatchav, Mr. Volam Janardhan, Mrs. Neelima Vuppala and two infants, Volam Akasa and K. Sahil.

Ninety-nine persons in all, which included the three pilots and 13 crew members, survived the crash which occurred seconds after the Los Angeles-bound aircraft took off. One person is still to be accounted for, a Singapore Airlines spokesman said this evening.

While the cause of the crash will be the subject matter of a detailed inquiry, there is speculation that the aircraft hit something while taking off or used the wrong runway. Initial reports that the weather conditions in Taipei were poor were denied by a Singapore Airlines spokesman here today, pointing out that another aircraft took off 15 minutes before flight SQ 006.

A Singapore Airlines spokesman said that US $ 25,000 would be given to the family of each of the deceased and US $ 5,000 to those injured in the crash as immediate assistance.

A report from Taipei quoted the pilot, Capt. Fong Kong (48), who has logged in over 11,000 hours of flying time, as saying that he saw something on the runway and hit the object just before take off.

The black box and cockpit voice recorder have been recovered and should provide details of the events leading to the crash.

This is the first serious accident for Singapore Airlines, regarded as one of the finest in the world. In December 1997, 104 persons were killed when a Silk Air (wholly owned by Singapore Airlines) Boeing 737 crashed in Indonesia.

Relatives flown to Taipei

Our Hyderabad Staff Reporter writes:

The relatives of the passengers killed in the plane crash, were flown this evening by a Jet Airways flight to Chennai en route to the crash site at Taipei.

Eight people, some parents and some relatives of the passengers feared killed in the crash were flown. The parents of three more passengers, who could not reach Hyderabad in time from Suryapet, about 120 km from here, would leave for Taiwan later. A relative of Mr. Koppaka Somasekhara, who survived the crash, also left. Singapore Airlines has made arrangements for flying four relatives of each passenger to Taipei.

U.S. experts to assist in probe

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

NEW YORK, NOV. 1. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has said it would send a team of investigators to help the authorities in Taiwan probe the disaster involving Singapore Airlines Flight 006. The eight- member team is expected to arrive in Taiwan on Thursday evening.

Agency reports quoted a Singapore Airlines spokesman in Los Angeles as saying that 45 Americans and 55 Taiwanese were among the 159 passengers.

The spokesman, Mr. James Boyd, said there had been no problem with the Boeing 747-400 which was bought in 1997 and had its last maintenance check on September 16.

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