(15 Dec 2000) Mandarin/Nat
XFA
Singapore Airlines reconstructed the final moments of the doomed Flight SQ006 late on Thursday in Taipei.
The Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet mistakenly tried to take off on a closed runway during a severe storm on October 31.
The plane slammed into construction equipment and burst into flames, killing 83 people.
At the request of prosecutors, the airline retraced the path of the fatal flight with a cargo plane similar to the airliner that crashed.
Meanwhile the three Singapore-based pilots who survived the firey crash may be detained longer in Taiwan, a prosecutor said on Friday.
The three pilots were expected to be freed today.
But their release might be delayed because additional paperwork is needed before they can return to Singapore, prosecutor Song Keo-yeh said.
SOUNDBITE, (Mandarin)
"There was no need for the pilots to be here."
SUPER CAPTION: Song Keo-yeh, prosecutor
Crash investigators have not formally concluded that pilot error caused the accident.
Pilot unions have criticized the Taiwanese prosecutors, who are conducting their own crash investigation, for holding the pilots so long.
Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council, which is conducting a separate crash investigation, has also urged the prosecutors to let the pilots return to their families.
The three pilots are flight commander Captain Foong Chee Kong, 41, a Malaysian; and Singaporean co-pilots Latif Cyrano, 36, and Ng Kheng Leng, 38.
Last week, Song said they would be allowed to go home as long as Singapore agreed to return the men to Taiwan if they were needed by prosecutors investigating the crash.
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