File photo for reference only

 

A dramatic return to Suvarnabhumi Airport unfolded on Sunday as Thai Airways Flight TG 922, bound for Frankfurt, was forced to discharge fuel mid-air before landing back safely.

 

The Boeing 777-300ER took off at 12.25pm, aiming for a 9pm local time arrival in Frankfurt. However, less than two hours into its journey, it encountered a technical glitch—a main gear cover failed to close properly.

 

This prompted the flight to make a U-turn, circling over Samut Sakhon, while releasing fuel. This safety measure is standard procedure to reduce landing weight in emergencies. Eyewitnesses captured the incident, noting the aircraft made several loops, leaving distinct white trails in the sky.

 

Picture courtesy of Siam Rath

 

The plane safely landed back at Suvarnabhumi Airport at 2.12pm and was stationed at Bay 120 for technical checks and maintenance. Engineers swiftly addressed the issue, enabling the aircraft to resume its journey, taking off again at 3.20pm. With this delay, passengers were expected to reach Frankfurt by 9.56pm local time, nearly an hour later than initially planned.

 

  Adapted by ASEAN Now from Bangkok Post 2025-05-05

 

 

7 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

With this delay, passengers were expected to reach Frankfurt by 9.56pm local time, nearly an hour later than initially planned.

 

Scheduled time of arrival of TG922 into FRA is 7:00pm, not 9:00pm so it ended up almost 3 hours late.

Interesting to me as Sunday night, actually around 0300-0330 Monday, I awoke to go to the bathroom, then stepped out onto my balcony in Jomtien.  I noticed a distinct but not very strong odor of diesel fuel.   I wondered if there had been a fuel leak somewhere close, maybe an accident involving a tanker truck.   

This explains it.  Dropping fuel off Samut Sarkon around mid afternoon would have allowed the evaporated fuel fumes to widely disperse in the atmosphere.  By morning, the scent of fuel was gone.