SIA, Air China planes in minor collision at Beijing airport - An Eye Witness Account

"A Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight was canceled Saturday morning (July 31) after the aircraft hit an Air China plane while departing from the Beijing Capital International Airport.

Singapore-bound SQ803, which was a Boeing 777, was taxiing out to the runway when its right wing tip struck the tail of the Air China Boeing 737, an SIA spokesman told The Sunday Times Saturday.

The accident took place at around 9am. But it was not until two hours later that all 248 passengers on board the SIA flight were told to disembark." Extracted from http://www.asianewsnet.net/news.php?id=13390&sec=1"

I was also on the same SQ803 flight and was seated at 45H on the right side of the airplane to witness the actual situation. This is the second incident I have with SIA in Beijing Airport. The first incident happens on 9th Sept 2006. The experience is worst than this. You could see my experience I posted in my blog here: http://yhkoh.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2006-01-01T00%3A00%3A00%2B08%3A00&updated-max=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00%2B08%3A00&max-results=4.

All I could say is that, this time I have a much better experience then the experience I have in 2006. SIA has indeed improved in handling such situation. Maybe I am more realistic this time round and maybe I could understand the many unknown not only to us as passengers but also to the airline as not all decisions are made by them. They will still need to get approval from engineering and flight safety authority.

I would however agree that the least SIA could do is to provide update hourly and have a station manager station in the hotel to answer any inquiry from the affected passengers. Best if SIA could provide options for affected passengers to have a day tour around the city so as to occupy them.

During my trip back home, I have spoken to other affected passengers, they have even gone to the Beijing International Airport to make inquiry and found out when is the flight they could take to leave Beijing. They got the answer at around 10pm on 31st July. This compare to me being informed at 4.55am by the hotel staff that the breakfast is ready at 5.10am and we are leaving for airport at 6.00am is a far cry. That means SIA already know when and which flight we could take in the late evening but fail to inform the affected passengers immediately. This leaves a bitter taste to the affected passengers. For anyone in such a situation, the timely information is important.

On the other hand, news report has reported that the accident is caused by pilot error due to poor visibility. As an eye witness, I agreed that it is due to pilot error. But to blame on poor visibility is hardly convincing to me. 1.1 km of visibility means you could see thing as far as 1.1km. The airplane is not taxiing on the runway at high speed. The pilot is sure to be able to see the parked airplane clearly while taxiing. I believe that it is pure misjudgment by the pilot.