Paul McCarthy: "The factual investigation seems to have been quite thorough and for the most part - complete. There are some areas where we have a little bit of problem and specifically, What was the status of the lighting at the time of the accident on both runways - 5L and 5R? I think that those are inconsistencies.

"But having said that, by and large, ASC seems to have investigated it properly and they seem to have most of the components covered. That the conclusions in the report - in the front page - where they said that 'we do not want to assign blame, we only want to do this for safety, but by the way, the pilots did it', is practice that was in favour 30 years ago in the international investigation community.

"Since then, responsible investigation authorities have moved away from probable cause statements and they do not assign blame. That was very clearly -- even though the investigators said it was not - it was very clearly an assignment of blame for whatever purposes. But the body of the report is probably pretty comprehensive.

"We believe that the human factor investigation that was given to the Taiwanese by MOT was a valuable addition to the overall content of the report. And quite frankly, I am glad that ASC included that as an appendix, even though they did not take many of the recommendations that MOT made."

PM: "Well, the first thing and the best thing that we can do in the short term, is to see that they are not brought to court. I mean, the prosecution of these pilots in this case is just not keeping in practice with international standards. It is not even in keeping with the standards set out by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, or ICAO.

"So, first off, we have to stop the prosecution by marshalling all of our forces and prevailing upon the prosecutor that this case does not warrant prosecution. If in fact the prosecutor proceeds anyway, we will make available through the personal representative of the pilots all the technical expertise and accident investigation available at our command, which is significant. Because whenever you have an aircraft accident, there is a pilot involved and chances are very good that we represent that pilot anywhere in the world.

"So, we will bring all those forces to bear to make the technical case that there was nothing, even remotely criminal, in what these pilots did. And finally, I am going to go to our international conference - from Singapore - and we will be discussing this at the highest level as to how to go one step further."

PM: "International standards are international best practice. For example, an international standard is the government of Singapore and the MOT and the CAA (Singapore) and the operatives of Changi Airport have the option of either complying with an international standard or filing a difference. If they file a difference, they simply notify the rest of the world that they do not comply with the standards.

"But as a practical matter, the airlines that operate into Chiang Kai-Shek airport have to be assured that Chiang Kai-Shek maintains some minimally acceptable level of safe operations. And the way that that is gauged throughout the world are by the ICAO's standards.

"Even where in the case of Taiwan, they are not a signatory to ICAO, they are still expected to abide by ICAO's standards or an equivalent standard of safety, if they want international aviation services."