thaiowl

The Thai DCA did not fare well in the report on the One-Two-GO crash in Phuket in 2007:

"A two-year investigation by NTSB resulted in a report mainly incorporated into the crash report published by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee of the Ministry of Transport. Both reports found that the Captain and First Officer had worked hours vastly in excess of the legal flight limits; that the first officer attempted to transfer control to the captain during the go-around; that neither pilot initiated a go-around and that the training and safety programs at the airline were deficient.

Corruption within One-Two-GO Airlines and the Thai Department of Civil Aviation was a factor for crash investigators. A television crew initially learned of fraudulent work rosters for the captain and first officer, obfuscating their illegal work schedule, had been provided to the crash investigators. The lead Thai Department of Civil Aviation investigator reported documents he had received from One-Two-GO were fiction. The National Transportation Safety Board report included the true work rosters, obtained by the family of a victim. The NTSB report documents check ride fraud among four other One-Two-GO pilots in the months following the crash. Legal filings and press articles reference an email among executives of One-Two-GO Airlines, including CEO Udom Tantiprasongchai."

The US NTSB takes an interest in commercial airline incidents involving US manufactured aircraft, and they arrived on site within days. The NTSB inspected the aircraft, the crash scene, interviewed survivors and witnesses. They took information obtained from the flight data recorder (“black box”) to the United States for analysis. The flight data recorder immediately yielded significant facts about the flight, including:

• Wind shear was not a factor in the crash
• First Officer Montri was the flying pilot
• Captain Arief’s radio communications with ATC were error prone
• Many Crew Resource Management (CRM) issues occurred within the cockpit
• There was no conversation between the pilots during the final 18 seconds of flight.
• The go-around (TO/GA) button, used to configure the aircraft for go-around, had not been pushed
• The throttle was pushed to take-off power only 2 seconds before impact.

Yet Thai investigator Director-General Vuttichai announced that NTSB had notified his department saying that it was “unable to determine the cause of the accident” and “No punishment will be imposed on any agency or personnel after completion of the investigation because the accident was beyond control”.

Sentenced, then released on bail!

"Somkhad Suebtrakool, Bhichit's secretary, was sentenced to eight years while Chuan Phatthanawaranont, former Bang Sue district chief, was sentenced to 10 years. Somkhad and Chuan were both released on bail."

Ride my MTB every day in Hua Hin but nearly got wiped out last month on soi 112 by a pick-up truck. You know the type...stupid exhaust pipe etc etc. Haven't been on that road again and usually stick to the beaches now. Just not work the risk.

My company's registered office is my house and my WP has my house address on it...never had a problem.

Trying to surpass Namibia.

IN the ICAO audit, the Thai DCA scored 35.6%, Cambodia (40.18%), Indonesia (45.09%), Vietnam (55.78%), Brunei (64.84%), Burma (64.9%), Laos (65.31%), Malaysia (81.18%), Singapore (98.86%).

Welcome to the real world of accountability.

Equally shocking was the Thai DCA's score compared with its ASEAN rivals: Thailand (35.6%), Cambodia (40.18%), Indonesia (45.09%), Vietnam (55.78%), Brunei (64.84%), Burma (64.9%), Laos (65.31%), Malaysia (81.18%), Singapore (98.86%).

Even more shocking was the Thai DCA's score compared with its ASEAN rivals, as highlighted in Post Today: Thailand (35.6%), Cambodia (40.18%), Indonesia (45.09%), Vietnam (55.78%), Brunei (64.84%), Burma (64.9%), Laos (65.31%), Malaysia (81.18%), Singapore (98.86%).

http://www.posttoday.com/%E0%B8%98%E0%B8%B8%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%88-%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%94/%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%A8%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%A9%E0%B8%90%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%88%E0%B8%A0%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%90/348298/%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%88%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%81%E0%B9%84%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%A2%E0%B9%84%E0%B8%9B%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%96%E0%B8%B9%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%88%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%82%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%A1

As my user name and picture suggests, I am a huge Owls supporter. Let's see what success our new Thai owner brings.

Buy a taser...the noise and arc light really scares them. Basement, Market Village, Hua Hin - Bt450.

Have lived here 25 years and only fly TG if other carriers not available. Fly to Europe with Finnair, EVA....excellent. TG has been pretty poor for many years and has been overtaken by other carriers who are constantly improving their product offerings.

Agree with Fat Controller. I transferred in USD and Siam Commercial Bank did the exchange here into Baht. Make sure you get a Foreign Exchange Transaction Form (example attached). Make sure the name in your passport matches your bank account name. I have two middle names so opened an SCB account with all my names so that the account name matched with my name in my passport.

I passed the scene of this crash at about 4:45am this morning, on the way back from Hua Hin. The police had shut the main road and we had to use the frontage road. From the photo, it looks like the left front of the bus hit the truck. If the truck was indeed doing a u-turn, you would have thought the right hand side of the bus would have taken the biggest hit. Also, is there even a U-turn at this location?

I have a condo in Hua Hin and can do the trip by car in 2 hours 10 mins, leaving Nonthaburi at 5am. Leave at 4am on a weekday for the return leg and am home by 6:15am. Extreme departure times, but I avoid the traffic.

Indeed it is "pheun thii" พื้นที่, district or area. Anyway the suggestion that ID cards are issued nationally was entirely fanciful. Yes the scan was lo res from DOPA's website.

It seems to defeat the object for those who have to carry their alien books around to prove they can go outside their districts but that is Thai bureaucracy. They know no one will carry the red book around, as it would fall to pieces entirely within 6 months of daily use, but police have an excuse to harass minorities for not carrying it. For farangs this is a very low risk but police can still harass you for only having the pink card when they do pee tests in pubs or hassle foreigners walking around near Soi Cowboy. If you are not black, scruffy and/or long haired or don't walk around the C'boy/Thonglor area or hang out in night spots frequented by teenagers on yaa E this is a fairly low risk. In my case I would never routinely carry my passport or alien book anyway, so the pink card plus lifetime DL would be better than nothing and the pink card should make it obvious that you are a PR, eliminating the BiB's argument that a DL alone doesn't indicate visa status .

The reason I mention CW is because as far as I know the only two posters who have specified where they obtained their pink cards are Thaiowl and Dork who both got them at the Chaengwattana Distict Office in Nonthaburi (not Immigration). I wanted to know, if this was a one off or whether other district offices in the Greater Bkk area have been issuing them to PRs who aren't minorities. It is pretty clear, as confirmed informally by DOPA to a poster who got someone to call them, that they were intended only for minorities but some oaf apparently drafted the new regulations badly in c2008 and made all PR holders eligible by accident. In fact the wording makes it compulsory for us to have the things. Some PR holders have been rejected by DOs on the basis that they understand the regulation was an error, whereas CW DO seems to have taken the regulation literally, as they should, and even tinkered with the software to make it accept farangs. Probably others will do the same, unless the regulations are amended and DOPA probably wouldn't want to lose face by admitting they made such a dumb mistake and didn't do any about it for years. Anyway it makes sense for PR holders to have an ID card. They do in just about every other country in the world.

There is no District Office called Chaengwattana. Perhaps you mean Pak Kret District Office but in any case that isn't where my card came from. My card was issed by Mueang Nonthaburi District Office which is located in the same complex as Nonthaburi Provincial headquarters on Rattanathibet Rd.

They did not simply offer me the card either. In fact they did all they could to persuade me that such a thing didn't exist and couldn't be issued. It was only after presenting all the relevant supporting documents and making calls (in their presence) to BORA (The division of DOPA that handle ID cards and household registration) that they reluctantly accepted my application even though it couldn't be fully processed. Neither did they "tinker" with the software.

The impetus to make it possible to issue the card came from the head of BORA and had nothing to do with Nonthaburi. It was them that had to modify the software so that the system would accept and print an ID card starting with the number 8.

From Michael Hare's posting in this thread I understand that his card was issued in Ubon Ratchathani.

My pink ID card was issued by the tessabaan in Pakkret

Hi Dork,

I decided to have a try at getting an ID card (I'm a PR). I'm in Sathorn District.

The first couple of layers of people claimed that I wasn't eligible. Eventually I got to see the head person, who admitted that I was supposed to be able to have one, but claimed they don't have the program/software to do it. They didn't even try to take a photo or print an ID card. I told them I knew of somebody in another district who had done it, and they wanted to know what district that was.

Currently the status is they are talking to head office. We'll see what happens. It seems I'm the first PR in my district to ask for one.

Thanks for the info.

At least two TV members have reported getting pink ID in Nonthaburi where they seem to offer the service unsolicited when new PRs apply for their first blue tabien baan. It seems that Nonthaburi has also faced software challenges in getting it done but persevered and called back later to say they had solved the problem and issued the cards.

Yes. I was issued the card by the tessabaan in Pakkret, Nonthaburi.

thanks for that information

just a quick question

Entitled to apply for citizenship after 5 years.

Do you get an ID number once you have completed the process?

Once PR has been granted you need to have your name listed in a blue Tabien Baan (Thor Ror 14) at which stage you will be issued with a national ID number starting with 8.

After that you are entitled to apply for an ID card for non-Thai citizens which will use the same number.

I have used my pink ID card a few times and the reaction is normally one of interest because they have never seen one.

Got a phone call from the tesabaan yesterday informing me that my pink ID card has arrived. I will collect it today...watch this space!

Collected my ID card...job done.

Congrats!

I want one of those...

When I recieved my Thabian baan, we had a very very long argument regarding ID, the district office insists that this pink card is only for 3 nationalities i-e: Burma, Combodia and Laos ( means for those who are here in Thailand on temporary basis) at that time I dont had any proof to continue my argument, I contacted some of my freinds on TV but none of them recieved any type of card till I read thaiowl got one....

So I request thaiowl if he can scan his card as an evidence for all of us out here with PRs ( who loves to have one ) to present it to our district offices.

Sorry...I don't want to have my new ID plastered over TV! I wasn't expecting and didn't ask for this ID card. When I got my name put on my tabien baan, the tesabaan just said that they would issue me me with one. And they did.

Got a phone call from the tesabaan yesterday informing me that my pink ID card has arrived. I will collect it today...watch this space!

Collected my ID card...job done.

Got a phone call from the tesabaan yesterday informing me that my pink ID card has arrived. I will collect it today...watch this space!

Hua Hin was out for 8 hours or so. First time we've had a big problem with TOT. I have friends who use BBB in Hua Hin and they say the service is terrible. Some others say it's good. Haven't bothered to get True down here although i do have True at home in Nonthaburi.

Back on in Hua Hin at 3:47pm

Has Thai Owl or anyone else successfully applied for an alien ID card yet? That computer glitch must have cleared up by now.

No news yet. They said the card would be ready by the end of December. Maybe the glitch hasn't been resolved or they think they have made an error and won't issue me with a card. I'll give it a few more weeks before giving them a call.