Airline says its too soon to say why jet's tail scraped runway WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) =97 Singapore Airlines said Thursday it was too= =20 soon to say what caused the tail of one of its jumbo jets to scrape the=20 runway while taking off from an airport in New Zealand. The Singapore-bound= =20 flight carrying 368 passengers and 20 crew made an emergency landing=20 Wednesday nearly 20 minutes after scraping its tail and scattering debris=20 during takeoff from Auckland. Nobody was injured, but damage to the plane=20 was serious, grounding it for major repairs. Singapore Airlines spokesman Stephen Forshaw said an inquiry was=20 continuing. Witnesses said the Boeing 747-400's tail hit the runway with a= =20 thud and grated the tarmac, and that parts of the fuselage later ripped=20 away. People on the ground reported seeing 3-foot flames shooting from the= =20 rear of the plane before it made its emergency landing. The 368 passengers= =20 from the flight flew out of Auckland Thursday morning on another plane. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.tha.gov.tt/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************