Mae Fah Luang-Chiang Rai international airport is expected to resume normal operations soon, after, at about 4am this morning, the damaged Nok Air Boeing 737-800 plane was extracted from the soft ground at the edge of the runway, where it had been stuck since Saturday night.

 

The airline, the airport and the Royal Thai Air Force had worked non-stop, in pouring rain, in to move the plane, which was partially blocking the runway, closing the airport. All flights to Chiang Rai were cancelled as a result of the incident.

 

A press conference is scheduled at 1.30pm today at the airport about the reopening. Separately, Nok Air will also clarify the incident and its planned remedy to the affected passengers today.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thailands-mae-fah-luang-airport-to-reopen-as-nok-air-aircraft-moved/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2022-08-04

 

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Ah, using old truck tires for the extraction process...

 

By the book, as per airplane manufacturer's guidelines, to be sure... /s

Airports of Thailand have been remarkably quiet about the deficiencies in their aircraft landing systems, the runway, their ground safety equipment and safety staff performance in this whole farrago. When is the mighty Thai press going to send an intrepid reporter to interview their CEO. They are as complicit in the failings as are Nok!

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Nok Air will also clarify the incident and its planned remedy to the affected passengers today.

Some quotes for reference from today's "The Nation"

 

 "a rescue team arrived within two minutes" (but passengers were kept inside the plane for well over an hour)

"The pilot decided to turn off the engines and fuel system to prevent fire and leakage"

"The captain also decided to keep passengers inside the aircraft as it was raining heavily and there was a thunderstorm. Moreover, the area was dark without any spotlights"

"Passengers were evacuated by vans and ambulances after around an hour. The plane’s battery died out so some passengers might have felt hot and could not breathe during the evacuation process"

"Once the rain weakened to a drizzle, some passengers decided to wait outside the plane as others were transported to the airport terminal by Thai Airways’ buses"

"Passengers were forbidden from walking to the building as they risked being hit by lightning"

"The pilot and crew tried to communicate to passengers in Thai and English to keep them from panicking" (not reassuring for passengers who did not understand these languages)

".............admitted that the passengers did not receive enough food and water after they were evacuated to the airport building because shops there had closed"

"Nok Air booked 87 rooms in three hotels for the passengers while some who went home also received compensation"

"It was an investigation committee that had ordered the airline not to transport the baggage to the terminal because they wanted to conduct a probe first"

 

and there is more...........

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40018501

 

 

After the plane was back on the runway:-

 

 

For safety, the remaining fuel in the plane was pumped out ........

 

Nothing to do with reducing the weight to enable a lighter lift then?

3 hours ago, Burma Bill said:

"Passengers were forbidden from walking to the building as they risked being hit by lightning"

Should have explained that the risk was higher than that of winning first prize in the National Lottery...........????

1 hour ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

Should have explained that the risk was higher than that of winning first prize in the National Lottery...........????

As I have posted before, walking back to the terminal on a dark airfield is not recommended. I have witnessed evacuees getting lost or falling into drains in the dark. On one occasion at Prestwick in the 1990s a Ryanair evacuated in a remote part of the aerodrome after a bomb scare, and it took us 4 hours to find the last of the very distressed and disorientated passengers. Some had fallen into an unseen drain and some had even tried to scale the boundary fence.

It is important to keep the passengers together and if staff is available escort them to the terminal in a bunch.l.