THAI denies staff ignored passengers during landing incident

[noitom]

If I was making 700k a month, I too would bullshit my way through the media. alt=whistling.gif>

And at that rate, your bs would carry some powerful messaging and side stepping.

[gbswales]

Please tell me that the image was photoshopped by the person posting it - or did the maintenance team from Thai really paint out the branding?

They were lucky not to have loss of life without worrying about loss of face!

[ppmacready]

I'm not sure you can believe anything from a company that painted over its logos with black paint so quickly after the accident. Clearly their priority is to save face at all costs.

And I'm not so sure you can believe passengers that haven't had any training in aviation. How many people have you seen get on these planes and didn't even know how to work the seatbelt?

Thais or ordinary people?

[GeorgeO]

^^ Yeah, really, that's how I read it. Like perhaps someone alerted the cabin crew the motor was hanging off or fuel was pissing out, or indeed the trolly-dollies bolted down the chute. But no, these people were complaining because they couldn't take their rubbish with them. Unfreakingbelievable. What they should have announced is, 'stupid ingrates who want to take their bag with them, please remain seated, all that wish to escape with their lives, please follow me'.

Perhaps this could give the airlines the impetus they need to enforce cabin baggage limits amongst Chinese passengers.

I have seen many passengers, from various Chinese countries, struggling down the aisle of the plane with virtually all of their travelling baggage, which they are unable to lift into the overhead storage without assistance.

One piece, 7 kilos ... yeah right...!!

[Somtamnication]

An Air France plane fell from Sky with hundreds of death, so what. Actually a small casualty. Good that something like this happen to prevent bigger accidents.

Well, unluckily for Air France, they could not paint off the logos!

Edited September 11, 2013 by Somtamnication

[Gonzo the Face]

I'd just be thankful that I got out of the aircraft alive, growling about suitcases being delayed is infantile.

If you actually read what the passengers were actually complaining about, among their chief complaints included:

-- no airline crew at the bottom of the emergency exit slides to assist with the evacuation, which they say resulted in some of the injuries, and

--the passengers being "locked" in a bus or buses for 20 minutes sitting out on the runway without moving, even though some of those onboard were injured and needed hospitalization.

Glad you posted......Too many are making the assumption 'only air crew..... The majority complaint, as I read it, was the treatment, or lack thereof, by ground staff. On busses for 20 mins, and stated as 'locked on busses' and these included some of the injured .

It seems too many posters want to right away jump on the air crew who probably did very little wrong as that is the complaint that is primarily be denied by the big wig as there was very little done wrong by this crew.

Edited September 11, 2013 by Gonzo the Face

[marell]

Whenever you board a commercial airliner you should remind yourself that

-Even if you've heard the emergency briefing a thousand times, pay attention.

-90 plus percent of the pax will panic in any sort of emergency.

-In this panic most of the pax will do idiotic things like try to go to the overhead bins for their carry ons

-Don't try to take anything with you.

-It's possible that some cabin staff will not follow their own checklists. Have a plan.

-You should be prepared to exit the AC in the blind. Planes can fill with smoke very fast.

-With this in mind, on boarding count the number of seat rows to the nearest exit. You may have to feel your way out.

-Also identify the nearest back up exit. Your primary may be blocked or inop.

-Keep cash, credit cards and vital documents on your person.

-When you exit the AC move upwind if possible.

Or...take a different flight.

ps..Oh yeah, keep your seat belt fastened. In 1988 Aloha Ailines 243 experienced an explosive decompression and lost a large section of overhead. The incident occurred at 24,000 feet. The plane landed with one fatality. Everyone who was wearing their seat belt survived. If this doesn't convince people, nothing will.

Edited September 11, 2013 by marell

[NanLaew]

So he other words he is saying that the customers are lying?

Why would a passenger say publicly that the crew ran far from the plane right away?

But NO passenger has publicly stated the crew abandoned them.

It's the sh!t stirrers on SOCIAL MEDIA that weren't even there and probably can't tell Thailand from Taiwan that make these statements WITHIN HOURS OF THE INCIDENT AND WELL BEFORE THAI MEDIA HAD ANY ACCESS TO PASSENGERS.

They are one step from trolls.... like a fair few sycophantic cool Thai bashers responding herein.

Edited September 11, 2013 by NanLaew

[alfalfa19]

The part about painting out the logo is so ridiculous as to be comical. It might be good material in case Fawlty Towers or the Black Adder are ever revived.

[gemini81]

Boycott. Unprofessional. Cancelled my international flight 21 hours in advance, no explanation. <deleted> off and go out of business TA. I'll be flying with your competitors.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

So he other words he is saying that the customers are lying?

Why would a passenger say publicly that the crew ran far from the plane right away?

But NO passenger has publicly stated the crew abandoned them.

That's simply not true, at least in terms of passenger complaints about the evacuation...

If you want to defend THAI, fine... But at least read the pertinent news, including the widely reported passenger comment below....

Wijit Khaoto, another passenger, said the lower end of the emergency slide he used did not reach the runway surface.

This caused difficulty for shorter passengers whose feet could not touch the ground from the end of the slide Some passengers trapped at the bottom, including himself, were struck in the back by those coming down the slide after them, he said.

"No staff members were there to help. The passengers who jumped on the slide had to turn back to help pull other passengers down," he said.

So how exactly does that complaint fit with THAI's claim that one of its cabin crew members had to go down each slide first in order to assist passengers at the bottom once they had jumped?

http://www.student-weekly.com/learning/100913-terry.html#.Ui_xqX8l9EI

http://www.pprune.org/8039707-post47.html

Edited September 11, 2013 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[amykat]

Has anybody in the media actually posed the question yet, "Why have you scrubbed out the logo?"

Can't wait to hear the answer to this....

Because their pixelater had the night off.

I googled something the other day, looking for a news report about the blocked out logo. What I found first was a long, detailed, article, about what the general airlines stardards (around the world) are, for accidents. It described blocking out the logo as a regular, std, procedure.

It also described the rules re luggage handling and various other things. ( I just don't remember where I read that and don't feel like looking for it again now or I would give a link.)

It also mentioned there are rules within various alliances ...as in Star Alliance, that the members are supposed to follow. So I have to say, in this case, Thai culture, Thai standards, Face, seem not to have anything to do with the painting over of the logo, according to what I read.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I think you need to read a bit more...

THAI Air originally claimed they blacked out their logo because it was a Star Alliance policy, but then had to backtrack on that once Star Alliance said it wasn't. Then THAI returned with a new statement that it was the airline's own policy.

But if you look more broadly, sometimes airlines do it...and many times they don't. From what I've seen, for example, it wasn't done with the Asiana Air crash at San Francisco, with the One-Two-Go crash in Phuket, or even with the recent Nok Air (a THAI Air subsidiary) runway mishap at Trang Airport.

Of course, having gotten an international public relations black eye over this incident, it certainly was in their best interest to try to portray it as something that every airline does.

[amykat]

Hi TallGuy,

I didn't mean to imply that it was a Star Alliance procedure to block the logo, just that they apparently have "group rules/standards" but I didn't read every detail, it was a several page article. About ALL issues that come up when there is an accident/incident.

Also, the article did talk about various accidents over the years, why some do it, some don't, info about using or not using the same flight numbers after an accident, etc. How the airlines are supposed (?) to keep the luggage as is, on the airlcraft, until some point in the investiagation, etc. I wish I could have memorized it to give a better post ...but I just remember the basic ideas.

It wasn't a website having to do with Thai anything. But I suppose also, that the so-called "standard procedure" of blocking out the logo, isn't mandatory, and it does seem like a negative thing to do ...to me. Especially it looks bad to do it, instantly, rather than maybe a few days later, in the case where the aircraft is stuck in public view for a long period.

Sorry, I hadn't/haven't seen the Thai Air press excuses blaming Star Alliance or even defending this issue at all.

Edited September 11, 2013 by amykat

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

No problem... Here's one of the articles on the subject from The Nation:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/THAI-backtracks-on-Crisis-Communication-Rule-30214574.html

[NanLaew]

So he other words he is saying that the customers are lying?

Why would a passenger say publicly that the crew ran far from the plane right away?

But NO passenger has publicly stated the crew abandoned them.

That's simply not true, at least in terms of passenger complaints about the evacuation...

If you want to defend THAI, fine... But at least read the pertinent news, including the widely reported passenger comment below....

Wijit Khaoto, another passenger, said the lower end of the emergency slide he used did not reach the runway surface.

This caused difficulty for shorter passengers whose feet could not touch the ground from the end of the slide Some passengers trapped at the bottom, including himself, were struck in the back by those coming down the slide after them, he said.

"No staff members were there to help. The passengers who jumped on the slide had to turn back to help pull other passengers down," he said.

So how exactly does that complaint fit with THAI's claim that one of its cabin crew members had to go down each slide first in order to assist passengers at the bottom once they had jumped?

http://www.student-weekly.com/learning/100913-terry.html#.Ui_xqX8l9EI

http://www.pprune.org/8039707-post47.html

Well that's it then. Now EVERYONE is an expert on EMERGENCY SLIDE EVACUATION PROCEDURE.

Read my lips (including K. Wijit Khaoto)...

NOBODY DIED

Looking at the pictures of the plane, it is clear that the for'ard and aft slides (the ones that double as liferafts) did reach the ground. However, the one immediately aft of the wing is purely a slide and almost vertical and just about reaches the ground. This is due to the fact that the starboard side gear had sunk in the soft area after it ran off the runway.

If warranted, any complaints should be directed at Airbus, not THAI.

Edited September 11, 2013 by NanLaew

[kkerry]

Thailand being Thailand I'm surprised the staff who did the paint job over the Thai flag colors on the tail haven't been charged with treason yet...

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Not sure what point you're trying to make, Nan, other than the obvious that no one died...although 40+ were reported injured, and more than a dozen hospitalized, apparently mostly from the evacuation process itself.

Contrary to what you claimed above, yes, passengers did complain.

And regarding evacuation policy, in news reports the other day, the airline's president said it's the airline's policy to have one cabin crew member go down the slide first so they can assist the following passengers.

Whether passenger Wijit knew that at the time or not, clearly, he was claiming that didn't happen, at least where he exited the aircraft.

Edited September 11, 2013 by TallGuyJohninBKK