Motorola employees among Taiwan jet-crash dead

Motorola said today that five of its employees died in the crash Tuesday night of Singapore Airlines Flight 006 at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taipei.

Eighty-one people were known early today to have died when the Boeing 747-400 jetliner crashed while taking off.

The four Singaporeans and one American were engineers and designers in the company's personal-communications group.

Motorola identified the employees as:

• Ms. Neo Lee Keow, a Singaporean and designer with Motorola's Singapore Design Center.
  
• Ms. Sandy Tee Seok Choo, a Singaporean and staff engineer with the Singapore Design Center.
  
• Ms. Jasmine Lim Lay Har, a Singaporean and designer with the Singapore Design Center.
  
• Mr. Tan Yip Thong, a Singaporean and designer with the Singapore Design Center.
  
• Philip Thomas, an American and information technologist with the Analog Design Group of the Semiconductor Products Sector, based in Phoenix, Arizona.

Company spokeswoman Margot Brown said this morning from Motorola's Schaumburg, Illinois, offices that the employees were on their way to the United States on business.

Christopher B. Galvin, Motorola's chairman and chief executive officer, expressed the company's sympathies.

"We are deeply saddened by this tragedy," Galvin said in a statement. "Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the families of our dear Motorolans and to all of those affected by this disastrous accident."

Galvin noted that special teams from Motorola have been involved in the situation since it first become known.

"Our first priority has been to establish contact with family members of the five employees and to provide all forms of support and assistance possible," he said. "Motorolans have been caring for family members in Singapore, Taipei and in the United States."

Motorola makes a variety of products used in the logistics industry, particularly its wireless-communications devices and radio-frequency identification products. The company is a quality-assurance leader and helped to pioneer the Six Sigma quality standard.

Investigators are focusing on the pilot's report that something hit the plane as it sped down the runway.

Taiwanese aviation officials have said that the wind and rain generated by an approaching typhoon during the takeoff were well within normal operating limits.

Edited by Michael Lear-Olimpi, Managing Editor, Logistics Online. Reach him at mlear-olimpi@verticalnet.com.