Airport tractor operator killed while towing jet

[webfact]

Airport tractor operator killed while towing jet

By THE NATION

 

 

The driver of a tow tractor at Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport was killed on Friday (February 7) when a passenger jet ran into the vehicle.

 

Airport director Samphan Khutranont did not identify the man killed in the 8am accident, in which the Nok Air jet, Flight DD6458 arriving from Nakhon Si Thammarat, was being towed towards a disembarking bay.

 

 

The coupling broke, the tractor stopped immediately, but the plane continued rolling forward into the vehicle.

 

The tractor driver died soon after at a hospital, while another ground-service employee also injured was being treated, Samphan said.

Nok Air replaced the damaged aircraft, which departed the airport after an hour’s delay.

 

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30381760

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-02-07

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[pixelaoffy]

Health &  Safety + Thailand   not compatible 

[RichardColeman]

Hopefully the family will be well compensated, though Nok will probably sue them for negligent driving

[Eindhoven]

RIP tractor operator.

 

I am getting what seems like daily 'promos' emails from Nok Air of late. Things must be desperate.

[maprao]

Having been in a tractor were the "pin" coupling broke we kept driving when safe signal the brakeman or pilot.

Poorly trained and very unlucky.

Why are they towing aircraft after landing. They normally taxi to the stand or gate.

Only in noise abatement areas like Heathrow if they land before a certain time us this done.

Bangkok nouse abatement 

[Cricky]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

coupling broke

Poor maintenance more like it 

[PJPom]

Why must there always be blame or criticism, this seemingly is an unfortunate accident. Condolences to the mans family, a sad day for them.

[RandolphGB]

5 hours ago, maprao said:

Having been in a tractor were the "pin" coupling broke we kept driving when safe signal the brakeman or pilot.

Poorly trained and very unlucky.

Why are they towing aircraft after landing. They normally taxi to the stand or gate.

Only in noise abatement areas like Heathrow if they land before a certain time us this done.

Bangkok nouse abatement 

They were towing to the gate to collect passengers for the scheduled flight. There was no passengers  onboard . Inaccurate reports state there were 

[soalbundy]

Buffaloes are cheaper and safer, gives off an Asian flavour for the tourists.

[mercman24]

very sad i know. they never see trains coming now we have a new one, never seen a plane coming, seems the plane rode into him, crushing him.

[gk10002000]

seems odd.  Normally the planes are not towed at a fast speed, possible I guess.  And the planes do not roll all that well and come to a stop fairly quickly.  I just saw the video on some other sites, and it looks to me like the Plane accelerated after or during or caused the tow bar to shear off or break.  Then the plane nosed down after running into the two tug that did slow and stop.  So the pilots definitely applied breaks.  I would not be surprised if the engines actually were throttle nudged or spooled up for some reason.

[ChrisY1]

14 hours ago, PJPom said:

Why must there always be blame or criticism, this seemingly is an unfortunate accident. Condolences to the mans family, a sad day for them.

Unfortunate most definitely...but would have been preventable

[legend49]

17 hours ago, maprao said:

Having been in a tractor were the "pin" coupling broke we kept driving when safe signal the brakeman or pilot.

Poorly trained and very unlucky.

Why are they towing aircraft after landing. They normally taxi to the stand or gate.

Only in noise abatement areas like Heathrow if they land before a certain time us this done.

Bangkok nouse abatement 

I wonder if there was anyone in the cockpit at all to be the brake person? This is normal protocol in aviation but remember where we are?

[justin case]

TIT ... no time / money for safety, but you can buy an amulet for protection

[steven100]

brake failure of coarse

[geriatrickid]

22 minutes ago, legend49 said:

I wonder if there was anyone in the cockpit at all to be the brake person? This is normal protocol in aviation but remember where we are?

If the person is not in contact with the  tug, it won't matter because the flight deck occupant  would not have seen the tug event occur.

[geriatrickid]

17 minutes ago, steven100 said:

brake failure of coarse

Or perhaps  the fault of farangs since it was a USA built  B737 after all and the aged tug was foreign sourced too.

[Aussieroaming]

RIP fella, nobody should die at work.

[Solinvictus]

Yeah, RIP. Unfortunate while on the job.

[hotchilli]

11 hours ago, mercman24 said:

very sad i know. they never see trains coming now we have a new one, never seen a plane coming, seems the plane rode into him, crushing him.

Seems you didn't understand the post, he was pulling the aircraft with the tractor when it broke free and rolled into him!

[LukKrueng]

2 hours ago, legend49 said:

I wonder if there was anyone in the cockpit at all to be the brake person? This is normal protocol in aviation but remember where we are?

Yes, even in Thailand there is a taxi pilot (or whatever it's called) when an airplane is towed to/ from parking position

[Burma Bill]

From my experience watching many arrivals at Don Mueng Airport, all flights were guided to the stand as shown below. I personally have never seen an arriving flight being towed to the stand - only pushed from the stand when departing. RIP tractor driver. 

[atyclb]

5 minutes ago, Burma Bill said:

From my experience watching many arrivals at Don Mueng Airport, all flights were guided to the stand as shown below. I personally have never seen an arriving flight being towed to the stand - only pushed from the stand when departing. RIP tractor driver. 

 

 

just a thought but could nok be trying to save jet fuel by using the tractor tow in ??

 

i have never heard of such an accident causing death.  extremely unusual.

[Stargeezr]

If everyone realized just how busy most airports are, and how little accidents like this occur

that should tell you that the training was probably good, just unfortunate that the coupling broke

and the tractor operator did not keep driving until safe. I guess there will always be the experts who will criticise because this happened in Thailane.

Geezer

[Bangkok Barry]

21 hours ago, Eindhoven said:

RIP tractor operator.

 

I am getting what seems like daily 'promos' emails from Nok Air of late. Things must be desperate.

 

Same for me with Air Asia. I've unsubscribed to end them.

[yogavnture]

the most shocking thing is that only a couple of vehicles around the incident.  dont most airports have full time fire rescue..........?  i dont see any of that around the incident.  what if a real big incident happens at don mueng.  will their be a response or only police in a pick up truck?

[007 RED]

1 hour ago, Burma Bill said:

From my experience watching many arrivals at Don Mueng Airport, all flights were guided to the stand as shown below. I personally have never seen an arriving flight being towed to the stand - only pushed from the stand when departing. RIP tractor driver. 

Your correct, aircraft that are arriving do not have a tug to tow them to the stand.

 

Sorry, but whoever wrote this article for the Nation is a complete and utter plonker and need to get their facts straight before committing 'pen to paper'.

 

The accident happened at 08:00am local time.  The aircraft did not have any passengers on board as it was being towed from the remote overnight parking bay to terminal 2 gate where it would be made ready for a flight.  The flight in question as quoted by Nation was as Nok DD6458 scheduled to depart Don Mueang at 08:40 for Nakhon Si Thammarat.

 

Also the aircraft involved in this incident would not have been allowed to fly straight away, again a bit of fake reporting, as the damage would need to be thoroughly examined and repaired.  The flight (DD6458) did take off about an hour late, but a replacement aircraft was used.

 

R.I.P. young man.

[Scott Tracy]

An unfortunate incident.

Comments have been made that the report 'incorrectly states' that the aircraft was being towed to a disembarkation point. I don't know if the report is true or if the commenters are correct.

I cannot see passengers or steps in place in the photographs. 

One commenter says a tow bar break is a rare occurrence, which, in my experience, it is. But it does happen. There is a shear pin in the bar, designed to break before tug pulls the nose landing gear off the aircraft.

There is normally a person on the flight deck, briefed to operate the brakes. Tug drivers normally signal by horn toots. It does help enormously if the brake system is presurised. Pumping and releasing the brakes on an aircraft a couple of times will depressurise the system, unless the system is kept pressurised.

The tug driver may well have signalled the brake man on the flight deck and expected the aircraft to stop. 

When I was learning tug driving, I was told if the pin breaks, if it's a push, stop, if it's a pull, drive away in the direction of travel if you can. In both cases, blowing the horn, or shouting or both, so the brake person can see whatever is happening.

 

RIP tug driver. 

 

[007 RED]

28 minutes ago, yogavnture said:

the most shocking thing is that only a couple of vehicles around the incident.  dont most airports have full time fire rescue..........?  i dont see any of that around the incident.  what if a real big incident happens at don mueng.  will their be a response or only police in a pick up truck?

As stated in the above post, some bad reporting by the Nation.

Within a few minutes of the incident occurring at 08:00am the plane was surrounded by emergency vehicles as may be seen below.

[Moonlover]

19 minutes ago, 007 RED said:

As stated in the above post, some bad reporting by the Nation.

Within a few minutes of the incident occurring at 08:00am the plane was surrounded by emergency vehicles as may be seen below.

Also a lot of TVF members who don't have clue about airport operations.