1. Bad weather
'Winds of up to 144kph and heavy rain were lashing the airport and causing poor visibility'
2. Unlit runway
'Questions have also been raised as to whether the runways were correctly lit.'
3. Pilots unwarned about closed runway
'According to San Francisco-based attorney Gerald Sterns, who specialises in representing air crash victims' families, under such conditions the control tower should have warned the pilots by radio about the closed runway. “The ‘black box' cockpit recorder indicated that wasn't done with the Singapore Airlines flight,” he said.'
4. Confusion about runways imminent
'The intended runway was near the one under repair and the two had almost identical identification numbers, adding to the chance of confusion.'
5. Runway not fully cordoned off
'But the disused strip at Taipei had not been completely blocked off because it was frequently used for taxi-ing aircraft.'
The pilots had some measure of fault, as from the article It can be inferred that they did not confirm about the runway before takeoff. However, the fault mainly lies with the airport in Taiwan and the staff on duty, as they had not followed protocol when it came to the runway being repaired, and allowed takeoffs in bad weather.
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