Heavy Rain Causes Phuket-Bound Flight To Divert To Krabi

[george]

Heavy rain causes Phuket-bound flight to divert to Krabi

PHUKET: -- Due to heavy rain and strong winds this morning, a Thai Airways flight was unable to land safely at Phuket International Airport and had to be diverted to Krabi.

The conditions also caused delays in the arrival of a number of domestic inbound flights, although no international arrivals were affected.

An officer at the airport control tower said several domestic flights had to circle the airport for ten to twenty minutes before landing safely.

Thai Airways flight TG205, scheduled to arrive in Phuket at 11:20 am, had to be diverted to Krabi. However it safely landed at its original destination at 13:35 pm.

Current rainy conditions are likely to persist over the next few days.

The Meteorological Department’s Southern Meteorological Center at Phuket Airport at 1pm today issued a flood warning for people in risk areas in Ranong, Phang Nga, Phuket and Krabi.

The possibility of flooding is likely to persist for two or three days, according to the statement.

The MET’s forecast for the 24-hour period starting at 5pm today calls for “fairly widespread” thundershowers covering 70% of the island and isolated heavy rain.

Winds will be Southwesterly at 15kmh to 30 kmh and wave heights about 1 meter.

-- Phuket Gazette 2010-08-23

Edited August 23, 2010 by george

[LivinginKata]

Good decision. Remember what happened last time the 1-2-go flight tried to land in a bad squall.

[ScubaBuddha]

Yeah..good to see this. Definitely a result of the 1-2-GO crash.

I was on a plane that had to circle HKT for almost an hour last year. It was the same storm that sank the Dive Asia Livaboard.

[jamesie]

Sorry s/b , but absolutely nothing to do with the 2007 1,2,go crash.

The same rules and regulations still apply now as they did then.

That [2007]was purely a result of pilot error..All airports have a set of criteria regards weather conditions and these have to be ,and are strictly adhered to.In conditions within the criteria a landing is classed as safely acheivable [this is a world wide system ,although each airport has its own individual set criteria depending on local geography and other factors].The diversion to Krabi simply meant that at the time of wanting to land at Phuket ,the safety criteria were not met so the plane HAD to divert elsewhere or if forecast is for improvement the aircraft may circle until criteria are met. This is part of international rules and regulations .Happens all over the world on a regular basis if criteria are not met.The 1,2,GO crash happened because of a lack of comunication and probable negligence between the two pilots in a situation of possible wind shear, where a competent crew would not have crashed.Weather conditions were not perfect at the time but were within the set limits,and should have been easily coped with by a professional crew who are extensively trained for all adverse conditions.