Dear Friends Here's an article from today's Sunday Times. On Friday, an SQ aircraft took a wrong turn through a parking bay and hit two tailstands. Without realizing it, the crew took off and landed in Singapore without incident. Here the report: begin==> Plane's Wrong Turn Taipei airport knew about unclear taxi-line markings A letter was sent by an SIA pilot alerting airport officials to the problem a few weeks before SQ29 made a wrong turn By Goh Sui Noi TAIWAN CORRESPONDENT TAIPEI - The Taiwan airport authorities yesterday confirmed they had received recent feedback that there were unclear taxi-line markings in the area where a Singapore Airlines (SIA) plane made a wrong turn on Friday. The feedback letter, received about a month ago, was from an SIA pilot, said deputy director of Chiang Kai Shek airport terminal Wei Sheng-tzi. The airport had then sent a safety bulletin to airlines to pay special attention to taxi-line markings in the area. This was because 'we were afraid that people might make a mistake', said Mr Wei. 'We redrew the taxi lines in the area two weeks ago.' A spokesman for SIA yesterday confirmed that one of the airline's pilots had made a report last month about unclear markings at the airport. The pilot had pointed out that the markings 'could cause misunderstanding'. 'We suggested to the airport whether it wanted to review this,' said the spokesman. As for Friday's incident, Mr Wei suggested that the flight crew of SQ29, which had turned into a remote parking bay instead of a designated taxiway, could have mistakenly followed a taxi line that led into the parking bay. Aviation Safety Council chief Yong Kay on Friday said checks by his investigators showed that signage for the designated taxiway was in accordance with international standards, but that he was not sure about other markings. The Taipei Times newspaper yesterday quoted airport officials as saying that SIA pilots were not familiar enough with the airport's layout. SIA started using Terminal 2 of the airport in May. It had hitherto been using Terminal 1 (see diagram). On Friday, the Singapore-bound SIA jet had pushed back from gate C6 at 7.18 am and taxied east along taxiway SS on its way to the runway. It should have made a right turn into taxiway S5 and then a left into taxiway SP. However, the Boeing 747-400 turned too early into a parking bay. The flight captain was told by air traffic control that he had made a wrong turn, and he apologised for it. Both air traffic control and flight crew were unaware that the aircraft's right wing had brushed against two tailstands in an equipment area nearby, knocking them over. The parking bay, meant for smaller aircraft such as B757s and is 57.4 m in width, did not have enough clearance for the 64 m wingspan of the SIA jet. Ground crew nearby who saw the incident reported it to airport authorities who then notified the captain, seven minutes after takeoff. After some checks, the captain decided to continue on to Singapore, where inspection of the plane showed slight damage to a wing panel. Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration is investigating the incident while SIA and the Transport Ministry of Singapore are also conducting their own investigations