Bereaved families of the 25 Taiwanese killed in Tuesday's air crash demanded an apology Sunday from the pilots and a local record amount of compensation from Singapore Airlines as an investigation into the tragedy continued.
"The three pilots must publicly apologize to our beloved ones who died in the crash," said Lin Chin-tang, whose daughter and granddaughter were killed in the crash.
Lin also demanded a full explanation from the air carrier "so that those people killed in the crash would be aware in the heaven how they died."
Eighty-one people were killed when SIA flight SQ006 with 179 people on board crashed while taking off from Chiang Kai Shek airport during a typhoon.
Reports here Sunday said some families of the 25 Taiwanese killed have turned down a compensation offer of 400,000 US dollars for each victim by SIA.
"The group organized by relatives of the Taiwanese victims have initially reached an agreement demanding 20 million Taiwan dollars (621,200 US) in compensation for each of those killed," the China Times said, without identifying its source.
"The unforgivable error made by the SIA pilots" pushed the group to seek higher compensation, it said.
China Airlines set a domestic compensation record by paying out 9.8 million Taiwan dollars for each of 202 people killed in a February 1998 crash.
An SIA official here said the company had informed the families of the dead, "who are due to receive the notification in two weeks."
"We have not had an initial response to our offer," she told AFP.
SIA would also pay medical expenses for those who were injured and discuss a compensation payout with them at a later date.
The plane's Malaysian pilot, captain Foong Chee Kong, co-pilots Latiff Cyrano and Ng Kheng Leng have been barred from leaving Taiwan pending the outcome of the investigation.
Song Kuo-yeh, a prosecutor from Taoyuan county who is leading the crash investigation, had told AFP: "If it is proved that pilot error had caused the air disaster, the three pilots would face manslaughter charges."
The airline had acknowledged that "pilot error" put the ill-fated jumbo on the closed 05R runway but questioned whether his mistake had been influenced by misleading lighting and asked why the closed runway was not blocked off.
Taiwan's aviation chief on Saturday denied that the airport's safety facilities were inadequate and had contributed to the crash.
If convicted of manslaughter the pilots would face a maximum jail term of five years, Song said.
He stressed that no charges would be laid before a full investigation was completed, which could take months.
Ching Chih-jen, a prosecutor from the ministry of justice, said Taiwan would consider sending the three pilots to Singapore for trial if Singapore agreed to help Taiwan in similar cases.
Taiwan and Singapore, which do not maintain official links, have no extradition treaty, Ching said.
Rescue workers Saturday night pulled out the last two bodies from the wreckage of the plane.
Meanwhile, distraught families continued to identify the remains in a morgue in Taoyuan, a city outside the airport, and prosecutors expected the identification process to be completed Sunday.
The morgue was divided into separate funeral parlors based on victims' religious beliefs and decorated with white flowers and wreaths. There were also religious services to honor the dead.
Of the other victims, 24 are Americans, 11 Singaporeans, 10 Indians, four Malaysians, two British, one Indonesian, one Japanese, one Filipino, one Vietnamese and one Dutch, according to SIA -- TAIPEI (AFP)
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