World News 01-11-2000 78 Dead In Air Crash who: 78 dead what: In crash of Singapore Airlines Flight 006 where: Taiwan when: Yesterday snippet: More than 78 people were killed when a Singapore Airlines Boeing 747 crashed in Taiwan yesterday. Flight 006 had just taken off en route for Los Angeles when it burst into flames, fully laden with fuel, breaking into three pieces as it hit the ground. "Survivors described seeing fellow passengers pinned under sections of the plane or burnt alive as the pools of fuel caught fire and engulfed the shattered fuselage," reports Richard Lloyd Parry in The Independent. "There were 159 passengers and 20 crew on board." Miraculously over 100 survived, although most received injuries. "The left wing seemed to hit something and then it was just a big roller coaster ride," said survivor Steven Courtney, one of four Britons known to be on board. "Flames were everywhere". As yet, there has been no explanation for the accident, but the pilot, who survived, has reported hitting something as he took off and there have been suggestions that the aircraft was using the wrong runway. "Questions will be raised," says The Telegraph, "over why the aircraft was allowed to take off in appalling weather brought on by the approach of Typhoon Xangsane, which is expected to strike Taiwan today. Several flights had already been cancelled." [... more]

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