Thai Airways skids off runway; 14 passengers hurt

[hhfarang]

"BANGKOK (AP) -- A Thai Airways plane carrying more than 280 people skidded off the runway while landing at Bangkok's main airport, injuring 14 passengers, the airline said Monday.

After the accident, workers on a crane blacked out the Thai Airways logo on the tail and body of the aircraft, as part of an effort to protect its image according to Star Alliance guidelines, an official said. It was the second mishap in less than two weeks for Thailand's national carrier.

The Airbus A330-300 that departed from Guangzhou, China, had a "glitch" in its wheel base while landing at Suvarnabhumi Airport late Sunday, the airline said. Photos taken after the incident showed deep furrows from skid marks in a grassy area off the runway leading to the stalled aircraft, resting with its nose down and emergency slides inflated.

"After touchdown at Suvarnabhumi Airport, the landing gear malfunctioned and caused the aircraft to skid off the runway. Sparks were noticed from the vicinity of the right landing gear near the engine; the matter is under investigation," Thai Airways President Sorajak Kasemsuvan said in a statement Monday.

"The captain took control of the aircraft until it came to a complete stop and passengers were evacuated from the aircraft emergency exits," he said.

Most of the injuries occurred as passengers evacuated the aircraft, the statement said.

The aircraft was carrying 288 passengers and 14 crew members. The airline said on its Twitter account that the 14 injured passengers were sent to hospitals.

Officials said the runway at Suvarnabhumi Airport will be temporarily closed.

Thai Airways official Smud Poom-On said that "blurring the logo" after an accident was a recommendation from Star Alliance known as the "crisis communication rule," meant to protect the image of both the airline and other members of Star Alliance.

The incident occurred less than two weeks after 20 passengers were injured when a Thai Airways Airbus A380 hit severe turbulence as it was descending to Hong Kong's airport. "

[Dr Mike]

Sorry I dont know how to do the quote thing.

In all fairness, after such an incident the airline will identify real injuries, but tell all the passengers that they can go and be seen at a hospital if they wish. I have been in an ER and was told that over 30 injured patients were coming in. When they arrived 90% walked in, some refused to be examined and only 3 or 4 had any real problems and the airline had identified them as injured. The others were just nervous people.

[hhfarang]

Photo of the plane shortly after the landing but after the branding logos had been painted black...

[Frank Hovis]

Same, Same.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?secti ... &clear1234

[Dr Mike]

Thats good, now nobody will know.

[bkistheone]

explains why my mates plane was late into bangers last night!

[PeteC]

......Thai Airways official Smud Poom-On said that "blurring the logo" after an accident was a recommendation from Star Alliance known as the "crisis communication rule," meant to protect the image of both the airline and other members of Star Alliance.......

That's a first for me ever hearing/reading about that procedure or seeing it done. Is it perhaps simply a way for Thai to save face and not let people see they possibly made a error? Pete

[STEVE G]

......Thai Airways official Smud Poom-On said that "blurring the logo" after an accident was a recommendation from Star Alliance known as the "crisis communication rule," meant to protect the image of both the airline and other members of Star Alliance.......

That's a first for me ever hearing/reading about that procedure or seeing it done. Is it perhaps simply a way for Thai to save face and not let people see they possibly made a error? Pete

It's common practice in the airline business Pete but not normally that soon after an incident. Normally it happens when an aircraft is in such a condition that it can't be recovered and it sits there for a couple of weeks whilst they decide how to get rid of it, not straight after.

[Nereus]

Interesting incident! In that first video clip above that aircraft is coming in "hot and high", as it is referred to. It looks to be halfway down the runway before it touches down, followed by the far end runway markings starting to show up before it actualy stops. The nose wheel is very obviously at 90 degrees to the aircraft, which I doubt very much the pilot would have known.
Despite all that he manages to keep the aircraft straight, infact, it appears to tear up the centre line marking!

Now we have the Thai aircraft about halfway down the runway (19L I beleive), which would indicate a correct approach and landing speed, then and it veers off the runway!

There has been reports of "sparks" from the right side engine, which may indicate that the aircraft did not land correctly, or encountered a large crosswind gust and the pilot could not correct it.

All speculation I know. But I guess Ms Yingluck will be along soon to put our minds at rest.

Not here you say? Don`t beleive it. She could not possibly be off on another overseas safari?

[Frank Hovis]

In the first of the two videos above, the nose wheel failed to retract on take off and the crew were aware and diverted to LAX. He certainly did a good job putting it down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JetBlue_Airways_Flight_292

[PeteC]

Thanks Steve, I've just never seen it. I was in SF when the Asian 777 crashed on landing in June and that had TV coverage 24-7. They made no attempt to paint out anything on the fuselage which sat between runways for about 72 hours. Same with the Pan Am 103 at Lockerbie or the TWA 800 crash out of New York. Perhaps those two were back before this paint-out suggestion was put in place. Now that I know about it I'll keep my eyes open concerning future incidents. My gut still tells me something is fishy to have a paint crew respond as fast as emergency personnel did. Pete

[Green Nomad]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember a Qantas Airways 747 sitting at the end of one of the runways at Dong Muang a few years ago, for quite some time. Don't remember Qantas ordering the painters in to paint it black all over, what a ridiculous idea, as if the average traveler doesn't know the difference between an airlines liveries, or colours.

As for Thai Airway's image being tainted, these things have happen to the most reliable of airlines. And turbulance cannot be a factor to affect an airlines image, as in the incident approaching Hong Kong.

This could be as minor as a wheel deflation or something more significant and serious as a strut collapse. Should be investigated by an independent authority, but will be investigated by the aircraft manufacturer, that is definate. GN.

[STEVE G]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember a Qantas Airways 747 sitting at the end of one of the runways at Dong Muang a few years ago, for quite some time. Don't remember Qantas ordering the painters in to paint it black all over,....

Obviously it's up to the airline but I can assure you that it happens although I've never seen black paint used before, usually they're whitewashed before scrapping.

[STEVE G]

Alitalia paints over crashed plane's markings
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... kings.html

[caller]

I suspect there may be a change in policy as the blacking out issue seems to be bigger news than the accident!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 04688.html