AirAsia forced to abort its first flight

BANGKOK: The inaugural flight of budget airline Thai AirAsia, carrying reporters and senior Shin Corp executives to Chiang Mai, was aborted shortly after take-off yesterday.

The plane returned to Bangkok International Airport following problems with its flap-control indicator. After fixing the problem, the aircraft completed its journey later in the afternoon.

There were about 100 passengers aboard. Aside from reporters, it carried company executives as well as 20 senior executives from major shareholder Shin Corp.

Among the passengers was Advanced Info Service president Yinglak Shinawatra, the younger sister of the prime minister.

The flight was aborted 20 minutes after taking off at 10.30am when the captain informed passengers that the plane had to return to Don Muang airport because of "minor problems".

The aircraft was a six-year old Boeing 737-300.

Thai AirAsia's chief of operations Nares Nganplung later held a press conference and said the plane's flap indicator for its left-wing had malfunctioned.

After replacing the equipment, it took off again and landed in Chiang Mai at 3pm, before flying back to Bangkok at about 7.30pm.

Nares said the malfunction was not serious as the plane could still fly but at a slower speed and by using more fuel than usual.

Boonklee Plangsiri, chief executive of Shin, said the captains made the right decision in aborting the flight as safety came first.

Tassapon Bijleveld, chief executive of Thai AirAsia, said the aircraft had flown in from Malaysia in the morning without any problem.

There were eight calls to Thai AirAsia's call centre asking about the problem but no flights had been cancelled.

The carrier will start commercial flights this morning with the same aircraft used for the inaugural flight. The problem had been completely fixed but the carrier would keep another plane on stand-by.

--The Nation 2004-02-03

I hope this won't lead to a mass cull of 737's.... Those things are frikin hard to bury

Great start!

Like a belly flop, that's got to hurt. Looks like the walking papers pile will get thinner .... Check their website for job opportunities!

and oh, check out the first line on this page... http://www.airasia.com/english.php?f=aircraft&p=maintenance

"Getting a rich partner is easy. Keeping a rich partner is tricky."

The point? AirAsia acknowledges maintenance is sustenance.

Did they mean ''Keeping a rich partner up in the sky is tricky''?

Still wish 'em luck.

Penzman

a flop for a flap.

I hear they are changing their slogan to "Now everyone can fry!"

Reminds me of one of Bob Marleys greatest hits..."Thai Chick-en No Fly" (no flew)