FEBRUARY 23, 06:32 EST 

Report Shows Troubled Taiwan Airport 

By ANNIE HUANG 
Associated Press Writer 


TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Lights were broken and markers were missing for a runway that should have been used by a Singapore Airlines jumbo jet that slammed into debris while taking off on the wrong airstrip, killing 83 people, Taiwanese officials said Friday. 

The preliminary report by crash investigators, who said it was too early to say what caused the Oct. 31 accident, painted a troubling picture of Taipei's airport. 

The report provided new details that pointed to apparent mistakes by the Los Angeles-bound Flight SQ006 pilots, who tried to take off in a rainstorm caused by an approaching typhoon. 

One light that could have helped direct the Boeing 747-400 to the correct runway was not working and another was too dim, said Kay Yong, the chief crash investigator. The lights were located at the point where the pilots mistakenly turned onto the wrong runway, parallel to the one they were supposed to use. 

Another problem was that a line was painted on the taxiway leading to the closed runway, but there was no line leading to the correct runway, Yong said. 

``According to international standards, where there are lights, there should be a line,'' Yong said. 

Yong said officials would determine in the next phase of the investigation whether the runways were properly lit and marked. He expected a final report to be issued as soon as December. 

Most of the passengers who died when the plane crashed and ripped in three were either American or Taiwanese. 

Chang Kuo-cheng, deputy director of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, which runs the airport, said he could not comment on the details until investigators release a final report. 

He said that all the airport's facilities were installed according to international standards when it was built in 1979. ``But I can't say if there were any changes in the guidelines that we didn't know about,'' Chang said. 

In a brief statement, Singapore Airlines said it would not comment until the final report was released. 

The air traffic control did not have ground radar and had no way of knowing during the storm that the plane was on the wrong runway, which was not completely blocked off because it was used by taxiing planes. 

But Yong said that the plane's pilots told the tower five times they believed they were on the correct runway. The pilots were also warned in a preflight briefing report that the runway was closed. 

The report also indicated that the closed runway might have been improperly illuminated, inviting the pilots to assume it was open. Tests showed that electricity had passed through the wiring for one the runway's edge lights, possible evidence that the lights were on, Yong said. 

Friday's report provided new evidence that the pilots ignored key warning signs that they were on the wrong runway. Because of the low visibility caused by the storm, the pilots decided to activate the plane's ``para-visual display,'' or PVD, equipment, which lights up when the aircraft is lined up properly on the correct runway. 

Yong said that the PVD did not light up and the pilot decided not to use it. Before taking off, the pilot said, ``We can see the runway not so bad,'' according to the report. 

Aviation analysts have said that if pilots have any doubt they are on the correct runway, they should not take off. The mouth of the runway was marked with large signs showing the runway's number, and the pilots should have paid careful attention to the signs, analysts have said. 

Singapore Airlines has long been considered one of the world's safest airlines. Before the Taipei crash, its flagship carrier had never had a fatal accident in its 28-year history. 

The airline's only other disaster came in 1997, when a plane operated by its subsidiary, SilkAir, crashed in Indonesia and killed 104 people.