Yesterday's horrific plane crash in Phuket, with the loss of about 90 lives, is another in a series of disasters that have hit Thailand in recent years.

Without being too specific we have had the Tsunami, a number of Ferry accidents, including the speedboat that capsized returning to Koh Samui from the full moon party, and hardly a week goes by without hearing of some bus crash, or pickup carrying 20 odd people back to Isaan going over a cliff. Murder and rape are on the increase. There seems to be very little value put on life.

Is it merely bad luck or can something be done?

Just thailand, luck as nought to do with it

Yesterday's horrific plane crash in Phuket, with the loss of about 90 lives, is another in a series of disasters that have hit Thailand in recent years.

Without being too specific we have had the Tsunami, a number of Ferry accidents, including the speedboat that capsized returning to Koh Samui from the full moon party, and hardly a week goes by without hearing of some bus crash, or pickup carrying 20 odd people back to Isaan going over a cliff. Murder and rape are on the increase. There seems to be very little value put on life.

Is it merely bad luck or can something be done?

Maybe it has a lot to do with the news medias focus on doom and gloom; disasters, crimes, crashes, politcal scandals, etc. Can't say as I blame the media though. None of us would be likely to buy a newspaper with the storyline, "Full moon party in Koh Samui held without any death or injury. All had a wonderful time".

You must have heard the maxim, "Life is cheap in the East."

The more careful you are and the more you follow instructions and safety regulations the luckier you get

Yesterday's horrific plane crash in Phuket, with the loss of about 90 lives, is another in a series of disasters that have hit Thailand in recent years.

Without being too specific we have had the Tsunami, a number of Ferry accidents, including the speedboat that capsized returning to Koh Samui from the full moon party, and hardly a week goes by without hearing of some bus crash, or pickup carrying 20 odd people back to Isaan going over a cliff. Murder and rape are on the increase. There seems to be very little value put on life.

Is it merely bad luck or can something be done?

Maybe it has a lot to do with the news medias focus on doom and gloom; disasters, crimes, crashes, politcal scandals, etc. Can't say as I blame the media though. None of us would be likely to buy a newspaper with the storyline, "Full moon party in Koh Samui held without any death or injury. All had a wonderful time".

disasters sell newspapers ,women gives her tips on how to save a pound on the cleaning costs does,nt .........

Disasters = News. That is an old saw. News = News.

Thailand is lazy and corrupt. This leads to accidents and chaos. Whenevr these situations arise (boats capsizing, planes crashing) it could be a wake up call. Yet, it never is.

There is no such thing as 'luck'. Luck is random oppty mixed with diligence - or the lack thereof.

Disasters = News. That is an old saw. News = News.

Thailand is lazy and corrupt. This leads to accidents and chaos. Whenevr these situations arise (boats capsizing, planes crashing) it could be a wake up call. Yet, it never is.

There is no such thing as 'luck'. Luck is random oppty mixed with diligence - or the lack thereof.

I disagree. There is such a thing as luck, be it good luck or bad luck or maybe call it fate. I have a friend who is a pilot and he is firmly convinced that the plane crash could have happened in any country, to any airline or with any pilot. He talks about things like wind shear and micro bursts that no pilot could overcome. I'm not a pilot nor a weather phenomenon expert but I tend to agree with him. I might add that he is one of the worst complainers in Thailand.

The more careful you are and the more you follow instructions and safety regulations the luckier you get

got to agree here, less controls in place = more accidents, sadly in the uk the controls for many things have gone way over the top.

The more careful you are and the more you follow instructions and safety regulations the luckier you get

got to agree here, less controls in place = more accidents, sadly in the uk the controls for many things have gone way over the top.

better to be safe than sorry ,you can never have too many rules and regulations in place .

I disagree. There is such a thing as luck, be it good luck or bad luck or maybe call it fate. I have a friend who is a pilot and he is firmly convinced that the plane crash could have happened in any country, to any airline or with any pilot. He talks about things like wind shear and micro bursts that no pilot could overcome. I'm not a pilot nor a weather phenomenon expert but I tend to agree with him. I might add that he is one of the worst complainers in Thailand.

Good article below and agree it could happen anywhere but maybe as it was budget airline there was more pressure for the pilot to "turn the aircraft round" more quickly and leep the profit margin. Several reports state the pilot tried to increase engine speed as the plane may well have been forced down by the wind.

http://oea.larc.nasa.gov/PAIS/Windshear.html

The more careful you are and the more you follow instructions and safety regulations the luckier you get

got to agree here, less controls in place = more accidents, sadly in the uk the controls for many things have gone way over the top.

better to be safe than sorry ,you can never have too many rules and regulations in place .

Where it involves other people ie aircraft, yes, but on a personal level the uk has too many "safety rules"

You want to see the amount of road markings here and road signs, occasionally a newspaper will show a photo with about 30 signs approaching a junction it has gone crazy.

Murder and rape are on the increase.

Is that true?

Can It All Be Just Bad Luck?

Reactive V's Proactive ..............................

I might add that he is one of the worst complainers in Thailand.

Coming from you, thats quite a statement. Just Kidding! Good point actually and I agree with it.

Murder and rape are on the increase.

Is that true?

Hit the nail right on the head!! Just because we are more aware of "news" due to the proliferation of news sources and our ability to access it vis a vis 24 hour TV news and the internet does not necessarily mean there is more or less of anything. The only thing for sure is there is a lot more news available to a lot more people.

Air disasters are relatively rare in Thailand, and I would think they happen no more here than any other country in the world.

Road and ferry / boating accidents are something else though....

The more careful you are and the more you follow instructions and safety regulations the luckier you get

got to agree here, less controls in place = more accidents, sadly in the uk the controls for many things have gone way over the top.

better to be safe than sorry ,you can never have too many rules and regulations in place .

People and business sometimes need to be told what to do for their own safety.

Just look at the state of Thailands road safety. If the UK didn't have the enforced rules it does, people would be driving the same as in Thailand.

You might think that the UK has gone too far, but at least it's safety issues versus business interests are less prone to corruption. And road deaths are far far lower than Thailand.

Air disasters are relatively rare in Thailand, and I would think they happen no more here than any other country in the world.

challenge that ....................

The monsoons bring blinding rain and freak gusts of wind

Andrew Drummond in Bangkok

snip

Phuket has been the scene of disasters but airlines do not regard the airport as dangerous. On April 15, 1985, an unscheduled Thai airline Boeing 737-200 collided with a hill next to the airport. Four passengers and seven crew were killed.

In August 1987 another Thai airlines 737-200 crashed into the sea on approach to the runway with the loss of 74 passengers and nine crew.

snip

off the top of my head , add in Surat and Samui .............

I know a number of Thais in Phuket, and after the Tsunami, many experienced financial and emotional hardships. Many went to fortune tellers, and took their advice. For example, I know of one Thai who has experienced bad luck since the Tsunami, and the fortune teller advised her and her husband to change their given names officially, and that would bring them good luck.

They in fact did this, and I learned it is fairly common for Thais to do this.

challenge that ....................

Check out airdisaster.com. You'll find similar numbers of crashes for Thailand and England, similar in population, but many more for Italy and even France, also very similar in population to Thailand. I'd say air disaster in Thailand is quite rare, or not really above average.

He talks about things like wind shear and micro bursts that no pilot could overcome.

What a load... Sorry but these things don't happen on quiet days with clear blue skies. The pilot made the decision to try to put the thing on the ground, just like the TG pilot did a couple years ago in Surat Thani.

Since then I stopped flying on later afternoon / early evening flights in the rainy season.

Pilots seem to think they lose face or lose dick when they divert to somewhere safer.

So if pilots are incapable and irresponsible to take those decisions then I make it for them and I don't fly during some hours during some seasons.

Or maybe I was just lucky. LOL..

challenge that ....................

Check out airdisaster.com. You'll find similar numbers of crashes for Thailand and England, similar in population, but many more for Italy and even France, also very similar in population to Thailand. I'd say air disaster in Thailand is quite rare, or not really above average.

interesting and a fair call ,

apparently too many countries have too many disasters ...........................

Air crash in Phuket IMHO was weather and bad luck.

Tsunami....bad luck it happened but government incompetence that there was no warning. People in the USGA tried to alert Thailand but nobody answered (even in the US embassy).

Bus crashes, boats capsizing......government incompetence.

Who was it that said "you reap what you sow"?

อะไรจะเกิดก็ให้มันกเกิด

Karma and all that.

I know a number of Thais in Phuket, and after the Tsunami, many experienced financial and emotional hardships. Many went to fortune tellers, and took their advice. For example, I know of one Thai who has experienced bad luck since the Tsunami, and the fortune teller advised her and her husband to change their given names officially, and that would bring them good luck.

They in fact did this, and I learned it is fairly common for Thais to do this.

I also know a couple that was having lots of marital problems after the Tsunami, and the fortune teller suggested they get divorced, but stay together. They did just that, and now live together in sin.

I use the domestic flights here a lot, and also helicopter flights to the offshore rigs. The standard of pilot professionalism here I have (imo) found to be excellent. Touch wood...

The drive to the airport / helipad is occasionally rather harrowing though.

Just for the curious, I looked up some numbers from FAA/NTSB data base. Lots of factors such as amount of flights but here they are for your analysis.

Number of fatal airplane crashes 1962 thru today. Only Commercial air carriers are included.

Thailand 3

China 7

US 78

Australia 1

India 5

UK 5

Malaysia 1

Singapore 0

Cambodia 2

Taiwan 4

Japan 2

Laos 3

Germany 5

France 4

Canada 2

Italy 4

Spain 3

Korea 2

New Zealand 0

Thailand 3

???????

The more careful you are and the more you follow instructions and safety regulations the luckier you get

got to agree here, less controls in place = more accidents, sadly in the uk the controls for many things have gone way over the top.

better to be safe than sorry ,you can never have too many rules and regulations in place .

I have to disagree with that.

We do need rules and regulations but on the other hand they can go way over the top with them in some instances.

Where peoples lives are at potential risk such as aircraft, driving and the like then yes do what is possible to reduce the hazards but we can have too many rules in life in general and often a bit of good old commom sense is what is needed, not another rule added to the book of life.