Heavy Rains, Poor Visibility Force Thai Flight To Detour

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Heavy rains, poor visibility force THAI flight to detour from Khon Kaen to land in Udon Thani

Khon Kaen - Heavy downpours, which resulted in poor visibility here Friday morning, forced a Thai Airways International passenger plane to land at the Udon Thani Airport instead.

Khon Kaen Airport chief Atthaya Larpmak said the heavy rains continued since Thursday morning.

He said the THAI Flight TG040, which left the Suvarnabhumi International Airport at 6:15 am, was scheduled to land at the Khon Kaen Airport at 7:10 am.

But the poor visibility forced the plane to fly to the Udon Thani Airport and landed there at 9:40 am.

-- The Nation 2010-01-22

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[NADTATIDA1]

The rain has not been that heavy,persistant yes! and well i was out for my morning stroll and could see the end of our road.

What gets me is the 2 and half hour it took to land at udon thani 100klms away? I could drive there in that time!! (on a bike)

Where did the pilot go....

Where did he go???

[mca]

Very weird. I live about 5k from the airport and the rain wasn't bad at all at that time. It was what I'd call light rain. You could stand outside without getting soaking wet for sure. Visibility? KK isn't exactly Heathrow. You don't have planes tripping over each other waiting to land. Don't TGs internal aircraft have instruments? Bloody hel_l I've flown into KK before where it was like somebody throwing buckets of water at the window, you couldn't see beyond the end of the wing and the bugger was going up and down like an epileptic roller coaster.

Some flights I've been on were more like a controlled crash than a landing.

[fishhooks]

I only got slightly wet in a Tuk Tuk in KK today, so couldn't have been all that bad.

[plachon]

At 8.30 pm it is chucking it down cats and dogs in Khon Kaen - for the third time today. It was pishing it down around 6.00 am, around midday and now. In between it was either light rain or a 3 hour dry period in the afternoon, but v. high humidity.

During fifteen or so years in Isaan, have never experienced such rough conditions during January. hel_l, earlier there was thunder and lightening like the rainy season storms. Something odd going down here.

Still, curious to know where the pilot went bai tiow for those two and a half hours before landing in Udon? could've given the passengers a side trip to Kunming or Singapore in that time! Bet they were shitting themselves the fuel would run out before.

[happylarry]

Has anyone not thought that he was probably circling for a good while waiting for the rain to clear before they took the decision to go to Udon. I am sure they dont fly that far out of their way unless they really have to. Bearing that in mind the time sounds about right to me....but what do I know????

HL

[goldfinger]

if there would have been an accident while landing, everyone would say: Why did the pilot do this, everyone knows........

(like in samui last year)

I would say, the pilot has done a good job, nobody injured.few hours lost,but nobody lost his live.

[Carib]

The pilot made a decision and landed the aircraft after some time on a different airfield. Everybody is OK, but not happy. I sure know what i would choose for.........

[ballpoint]

The pilot made a decision and landed the aircraft after some time on a different airfield. Everybody is OK, but not happy. I sure know what i would choose for.........

Precisely. And it's not as if he flew them down to Hat Yai and made them bus back to KK. Udon's only 100km away.

[kimamey]

At 8.30 pm it is chucking it down cats and dogs in Khon Kaen - for the third time today. It was pishing it down around 6.00 am, around midday and now. In between it was either light rain or a 3 hour dry period in the afternoon, but v. high humidity.

During fifteen or so years in Isaan, have never experienced such rough conditions during January. hel_l, earlier there was thunder and lightening like the rainy season storms. Something odd going down here.

Still, curious to know where the pilot went bai tiow for those two and a half hours before landing in Udon? could've given the passengers a side trip to Kunming or Singapore in that time! Bet they were shitting themselves the fuel would run out before.

I sent this story to my gf in Mahasarakham whilst I was home for lunch. Thanks to having to explain "chucking it down cats and dogs" and "It was pishing it down" I was late getting back to work. I've begun to realise how stupid the English language is. She then asked me what "bai tiow" meant, which surprised me as I assumed it was Thai but she didn't seem to know what it meant so perhaps you could enlighten us both.

Anyway it may have been raining more in Khon Kaen than here in the UK but I bet it's not as cold. It's really getting into my bones now I'm getting older so I must move to Thailand soon I think.

[kimamey]

Has anyone not thought that he was probably circling for a good while waiting for the rain to clear before they took the decision to go to Udon. I am sure they dont fly that far out of their way unless they really have to. Bearing that in mind the time sounds about right to me....but what do I know????

HL

I think they sometimes circle to use up fuel before landing in case of fire and probably loose some weight so they can stop more easily.

[Jonathanpattaya]

The decision of a commercial pilot to divert to a nominated alternate because of poor weather is based on strict weather minima.

I don't understand why this normal procedure has made headline news other than the weather was unusually inclement for this time of year.

[SantiSuk]

Good for Thai Airways (for once).

I remember many years ago flying out of Dallas with Texas Southwest (the 'Luurve Airline' and boy did we guys love those hotpants and Texan accents) to Houston.

Taxiing to take off the pilot intercoms:

"Y'all might have noticed that the chickenshit Yankee planes are turning back to the terminal. There's severe tornado forecasts around but we've had a look at the charts and we think we can find a way through it"

Met by collective (ignored shouts) of go back, go back!!

[plachon]

At 8.30 pm it is chucking it down cats and dogs in Khon Kaen - for the third time today. It was pishing it down around 6.00 am, around midday and now. In between it was either light rain or a 3 hour dry period in the afternoon, but v. high humidity.

During fifteen or so years in Isaan, have never experienced such rough conditions during January. hel_l, earlier there was thunder and lightening like the rainy season storms. Something odd going down here.

Still, curious to know where the pilot went bai tiow for those two and a half hours before landing in Udon? could've given the passengers a side trip to Kunming or Singapore in that time! Bet they were shitting themselves the fuel would run out before.

I sent this story to my gf in Mahasarakham whilst I was home for lunch. Thanks to having to explain "chucking it down cats and dogs" and "It was pishing it down" I was late getting back to work. I've begun to realise how stupid the English language is. She then asked me what "bai tiow" meant, which surprised me as I assumed it was Thai but she didn't seem to know what it meant so perhaps you could enlighten us both.

Anyway it may have been raining more in Khon Kaen than here in the UK but I bet it's not as cold. It's really getting into my bones now I'm getting older so I must move to Thailand soon I think.

Most sorry if I caused you to be late back to work Kimamey! But if I helped your gf learn a few English idioms and slang expressions, then maybe all was not lost? I too am surprised she didn't cotton on to the meaning of "bai tiow", which was the only bit of Thai in there, albeit in the anglicized. "bai tiow" is one of those common Thai expressions that can mean a variety of things, depending on the context. In this context, it was supposed to mean "gone on tour", but it can also mean "go on holiday", "take a trip / journey for fun" or even "go on a date". Try saying to your gf "pom ja bai tiow poo ying angrit yen-nee" and see what kind of reaction you get. However, I take no responsibility for any consequences that may result.

No, it's not cold here, just rather nice, cool and overcast for the time of year, after yesterday's downpour. Bit like rainy season conditions, but cooler. 3 days on the trot like this - very strange conditions for the time of year. Hasn't really been a proper cold spell yet this winter in Isaan, so hope it turns cold for a while before the "dog days" of summer come round in March. There you go, another animal idiom to teach your gf, (if she ever calms down after you've tried out the sentence above on her).