Now that it is clear that the tragic crash of SQ flight 006 at Taipei airport was caused by the captain's attempting to takeoff on a runway that was closed, dark and under construction, the question is:
How could he have made such an egregious error?
My immediate answer is: A severe case of tunnel vision.
Tunnel vision is a phrase pilots and accident investigators have used for many years to describe a pilot's mental state, which apparently focuses on a single goal or outcome with such intensity, that other important information is blocked out of the mental process. Such blocked-out information can sometimes be crucial to a safe operation, as this accident proves once again.
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