Why do RSAF planes turn left?

[blueglass]

Understandably, RSAF planes can't fly straight into Malaysian airspace when they take off from Paya Lebar airbase. They either have to turn left or right. Turning left will take them over highly populated high-rise residential estates like Punggol and Sengkang. Besides the loud noise that they produce, there's never a guarantee that one won't lose power, spin out of control, and... (you can imagine the rest). I mean, we're not talking about brand new sophisticated F-16s or F-15s here. We're talking about those upgraded F-5Es manufactured in the 1970s. Yes, those 40 year old planes.

Turning right on the other hand will take them over the Tampines dumping grounds, followed by Paris Ris fish farms, then Pasir Ris industrial, before reaching Paris Ris residential areas. I thought that would be a more sensible and safer route to take. After all, planes crashing shortly after take-off is not unheard of, right?

What do you guys think?

[punggolboy]

The RSAF have a very high safety measure in place. The F-5's take off nearly half the full length runway with full afterburner.  If the plane engine fail, the pilot will fly straight towards the sea and let it crash at sea rather than at the densely populated area.  By turning left, if the engine fail, it will try to glide and land at nearby seletar air base.

But, if it turn right, it might bum into an airliner landing or taking off at changi airport.

F-5's is a very reliable plane. Simple and easy to fly without complicated and messy electronic/computer systems.....as computer system sometime crash and not really reliable....same as our PC's hehehe

[dafansu]

they can only turn left, no right turn allowed

[blueglass]

Why not? What's the 'official' reason?