george Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Heavy fog diverts airliners from Bangkok airport BANGKOK: -- Thick fog diverted 11 flights from Bangkok's international airport Thursday, forcing them to land at the Thai capital's domestic airport as well as farther afield in Chiang Mai and Phuket, airport officials said. The fog, which reduced visibility to 800 metres, blanketed Suvarnabhumi Airport from 7 to 8 am, but lifted about 9 am, allowing traffic to resume, airport director Serirat Prasutanond said. Of the 11 airplanes forced to land elsewhere, nine were diverted to the nearby Don Mueang Aiport, two to Phuket Airport in southern Thailand and one to Chiang Mai Airport in the far north. The diverted airplanes included flights operated by Air Asia, Bangkok Airways, Cathay China Airlines, Gulf Air, Jet Air, Saudi Arabian Airlines and Thai Airways International. It was the first time Suvarnabhumi Airport had to divert planes since November 26 to December 3 when the entire complex was shut down by protestors seeking to bring down the government. -- dpa 2009-01-22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samtam Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Is it fog or haze? It's been very "hazy" for the last two days, as the temperature rises. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWalkingMan Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Heavy fog diverts airliners from Bangkok airport...Cathay China Airlines... Is this a new airline company or a flub by the reporters. TheWalkingMan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moruya Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Why can't Thai journalists add up basic numbers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astral Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Doesn't the airport have facilities for "blind landing". I know Don Muang does as I have been on a flight where the captain told us they would be using the system by way of a training/test. Even though the visibility was good. Surely the major airlines have the equipment installed on the planes?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozfarang81 Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 yes it has instrument landing systems. however there is still usually a requirement to be visual with the runway at about 200ft above the ground. this can be achieved in all but the thickest of fogs. there are however a few places in the world where a zero visibility landing is allowed, it seems BKK is not one of them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyphuketLife Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 yes it has instrument landing systems. however there is still usually a requirement to be visual with the runway at about 200ft above the ground. this can be achieved in all but the thickest of fogs. there are however a few places in the world where a zero visibility landing is allowed, it seems BKK is not one of them and thank god, I would hate to be a passenger on a plane that is landing when the pilot can't see anything, no matter what country I was in. I am just glad that this story about the airports flights being diverted did not involve people and colors like YELLOW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dotcom Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Most or all 747's land the plane by computer. My uncle who is a pilot says after takeoff they switch on the auto pilot & then never touch the controls until, the aircraft is on the taxi way. Congratulations on re-inventing the wheel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dekka007 Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 (edited) Most or all 747's land the plane by computer.My uncle who is a pilot says after takeoff they switch on the auto pilot & then never touch the controls until, the aircraft is on the taxi way. Congratulations on re-inventing the wheel. B*ll*x.... for want of a better word Pilots will use autoland about once a month if that, if the weather allows manual flying they will manually fly it. Anyway i think the report of 800m is inaccurate, SVB has cat 2 landing facilities down to 100ft vertical / 300m vis even in the non cat 2 equipped airplanes the cat 1 minima there is 200ft verical/ 550m vis. Pity they do not have Cat3b/c categories at the airport 0ft vertical / 0m vis. However the powers that be said the expense of installing it in bangkok was too great considering the amount of times it would be used....oops good planning. So sounds like the actual vis dropped below 550m or even 300m temporarily....it maybe that cat 2 was unavailable this morning or indeed the vertical vis was very restrictive which is unlucky and much rarer that restricted horizontal vis being the issue. Edited January 22, 2009 by dekka007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cymruambyth1 Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 The fog, which reduced visibility to 800 metres, 800 metres my arse! We played golf close to Swampydoom today and waited for an hour before we were able to see the ladies tee from the blue tees! That - for the uninitiated - is about 70 yards on the first tee at Royal Golf & Country Club. I would prefer to try to land a 747 in that fog than take that tee shot on! Water right, trees left...it's a nightmare! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonrakers Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Of the 11 airplanes forced to land elsewhere, nine were diverted to the nearby Don Mueang Aiport, two to Phuket Airport in southern Thailand and one to Chiang Mai Airport in the far north. And so out of 11 planes: 9 Went to Don Mueang = 9, + 2 went to Phuket = 11, +1 to Chiang Mai = 12 planes diverted out of 11. We seem to have acquired an extra plane here somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cymruambyth1 Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Of the 11 airplanes forced to land elsewhere, nine were diverted to the nearby Don Mueang Aiport, two to Phuket Airport in southern Thailand and one to Chiang Mai Airport in the far north. And so out of 11 planes: 9 Went to Don Mueang = 9, + 2 went to Phuket = 11, +1 to Chiang Mai = 12 planes diverted out of 11. We seem to have acquired an extra plane here somewhere. I am sure it tried to land on our fairway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballpoint Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 The government issued a court order to have the fog leave on its own volition or be forcibly removed from the airport. The fog ignored the court order and gained in strength. Troops were called in to expel the fog, however they chose not to. Thai airways is reporting a 900000000 billion baht loss due to the fog, and a number of posters on TV have demanded the goverment to immediately round up its leaders and prosecute them on terrorism charges. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FatherF Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 The government issued a court order to have the fog leave on its own volition or be forcibly removed from the airport. The fog ignored the court order and gained in strength. Troops were called in to expel the fog, however they chose not to. Thai airways is reporting a 900000000 billion baht loss due to the fog, and a number of posters on TV have demanded the goverment to immediately round up its leaders and prosecute them on terrorism charges. FF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozfarang81 Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Most or all 747's land the plane by computer.My uncle who is a pilot says after takeoff they switch on the auto pilot & then never touch the controls until, the aircraft is on the taxi way. Congratulations on re-inventing the wheel. agreed that this post is simply not true. almost all landings are flown by hand. they only usually do auto-landings to stay current in the auto landing procedure. as for after takeoff, it is up to the pilot flying how much he will hand fly. quite often though it is true that the autopilot is engaged shortly after takeoff and then disengaged during the approach phase. Pilots like to keep fresh with how to fly their airplane, it is for that reason they almost always hand fly landings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Well, it's a good thing no one had taken over the other airports! In Thailand, one never knows for sure what will happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dumball Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 yes it has instrument landing systems. however there is still usually a requirement to be visual with _the runway at about 200ft above the ground._ this can be achieved in all but the thickest of fogs. there are however a few places in the world where a zero visibility landing is allowed, it seems BKK is not one of them WOW , is that some kind of modified 'Indian flying carpet' prevalent in many old movies ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricardo Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 There may have been a similar problem again today, as I spotted a JAL Jumbo on the tarmac at CNX, when dropping-off Mrs R at about 8.30 this morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballpoint Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Well, it's a good thing no one had taken over the other airports! In Thailand, one never knows for sure what will happen. They could always land in the Chao Phraya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozfarang81 Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 yes it has instrument landing systems. however there is still usually a requirement to be visual with _the runway at about 200ft above the ground._ this can be achieved in all but the thickest of fogs. there are however a few places in the world where a zero visibility landing is allowed, it seems BKK is not one of them WOW , is that some kind of modified 'Indian flying carpet' prevalent in many old movies ? what on earth are you talking about? The high intensity landing lights on the runway will be visible through most fogs at 100 or 200ft usually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAWP Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 He was trying to be funny and read the quoted text as if it was saying the runway was 200ft above ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 I wonder if planes were diverted this morning (Saturday). I got up and it was really, rally foggy. Where I live, which isn't too close to the airport, the visibility was really limited. It was beautiful and cool, but I decided against even going to the grocery story because it was a little too foggy to drive (decided to wait a few hours). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wpcoe Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 Sorry to jump in so late on this thread so late, but I just returned to Thailand and am catching up on forum reading. I was on the morning UA flight departing BKK for Narita and as we taxied out to the runway things were normal until just about reaching the runway, then BAM! the fog descended and was so thick that you couldn't see the wingtips from inside the aircraft. The captain came down and strolled through the cabin chatting with folks and said the visibility was so poor we couldn't even taxi back to the terminal if we wanted to. We waited in that spot for over an hour and heard a couple planes attempt to land and then go around. At one point during the delay, the seat belt sign came back on -- our sign that we were going to leave soon -- followed by an announcement from the cockpit that the fog had lifted enough for us to depart, but then came down again so we still couldn't depart. It was surprising how fast the fog came in/down. One minute could see for miles, next minute can't see 100 feet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.png.3b3332cc2256ad0edbc2fe9404feeef0.png)
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now