Motorola on Thursday said that five of its employees, four Singaporeans and one US citizen, are confirmed to be among the casualties of a devastating plane crash Tuesday night at Taiwan's Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport.
Three of the Singaporeans, Ms. Neo Lee Keow, Ms. Jasmine Lim Lay Har and Mr. Tan Yip Thong, were designers at Motorola's Singapore Design Center, while the fourth, Ms. Sandy Tee Seok Choo, was a staff engineer at the center, Motorola said in a statement. The American, Mr. Philip Thomas, served with the Phoenix, Arizona-based Analog Design Group of Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector.
All five Motorola employees were onboard the Singapore Airlines flight SQ006 en route to Los Angeles that broke apart and burst into flames upon the crash on takeoff from the airport in Taoyuan, near the Taiwanese capital of Taipei.
The accident, which occurred in bad weather conditions with heavy winds and rains during an approaching typhoon, killed 80 of the 179 passengers and crew onboard the Boeing 747-400, according to the latest reports.
A group of U.S. aviation experts was scheduled to arrive in Taiwan on Thursday to assist local aviation authorities and Singapore Airlines staff with the probe into the crash.
A Taiwanese official in a televised press conference Wednesday said that the two so-called black boxes onboard the plane have been found. Early signs suggested that the recordings were intact and would help in the investigation into the cause of the accident, the official added.
More information about the accident, including detailed passenger and crew lists, can be found on the Web at http://www.singaporeair.com/.
Motorola, in Schaumburg, Illinois, can be reached via the Web at http://www.mot.com/.