Plane's landing gear had history of problems, Thai Airways says

[webfact]

Plane's landing gear had history of problems, airline says
By Coconuts Bangkok



BANGKOK: -- Thai Airways International (THAI) revealed that it had encountered problems with landing gear on its Airbus A330-300 fleet prior to Sunday night's landing mishap.

Part of the landing gear had also been subject to an aviation watchdog warning.

On Sunday THAI A330-300 veered off the runway after landing at Suvarnabhumi airport on Sunday, injuring 40 people.

THAI executive vice-president for the technical department, Flt Lt Montree Jumrieng, said Wednesday that preliminary testing showed the accident was the result of a defective bogie beam on the aircraft's landing gear. He said the faulty part caused the gear to collapse about 1km down the runway.

This group of aircraft is due to be decommissioned between next year and 2017. [read more...]

Full story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2013/09/12/planes-landing-gear-had-history-problems-airline-says

-- Coconuts Bangkok 2013-09-12

[laurentbkk]

Bad maintenance of the aircraft ? Apparently this aircraft had a complete check up in April .....

[retell]

they'd better repaired the landing gear i would say

before it gets broken

[retell]

Bad maintenance of the aircraft ? Apparently this aircraft had a complete check up in April .....

checked and defects noted in a report

repair not needed cos can do for another 4 years

just hang a few extra flowers in the cockpit and all will be fine

[ginjag]

That saves one from having to be decommissioned.

If in the next 3 years what are the replacements to be-second hand ??? they have no money to buy new, they are struggling as it is. Just have to look at this 5 or so years ago they stated here on a thread how many new aircraft they had ordered It was countless, How many have they had delivered ???

It's all well and good announcing these orders, and referbs but it's another getting on with the promise.

I just want to ask if anyone has traveled on the 747 to London Have they refurbed the interiors and got the monitors on the seat backs ??? this was a priority 2 years ago to update-in line with other carriers.

I am flying EVA lower price, new equip, newer planes. Thai have made me make this choice, I am a critic of them now, because I had traveled for 30 years with them and the airline has gone down hill every year so there has to be a cut off point.

PITY because initially Thai used to put a smile on my face when I sat in the aircraft waiting for my journey out here.

[phetaroi]

A history of problems with the landing gear? Oh, that's reassuring.

[NongKhaiKid]

 

Bad maintenance of the aircraft ? Apparently this aircraft had a complete check up in April .....

checked and defects noted in a report

repair not needed cos can do for another 4 years

just hang a few extra flowers in the cockpit and all will be fine

 

Flowers and superstition fixes all.

This would explain why yesterday the boss of Thai Airways led a prayer ceremony to ask for the speedy removal of the stricken plane from the runway.

A simpleton like me would have thought some competent engineers with the proper equipment would have been all that was needed not divine intervention.

[theblether]

Scandalous, just scandalous. Profit before safety.

This won't go unnoticed by the IATA, Thai Airways are now in a World of hurt and they deserve all the opprobrium coming their way.

I'll be boycotting them now.

[Curt1591]

Airbus gear has had a history of problems. I really don't like flying them.

[noitom]

Thai Airways was aware that this model Airbus had problems with its landing gear for years, so the Thais say. The Thais first stated that this aircraft has been in service for 17 years. Now they are blaming Airbus for defective landing gear. Oh boy, these Thais. They are something else. The Thais are going up against Airbus after 17 years on defective landing gear. Wow. The Thai hubris never stops amazing. Defective landing gear hub as in "hubris."

Edited September 12, 2013 by noitom

[Notstupid30]

it could have been a lot worst and could have been with a brand new A380 ..

Edited September 12, 2013 by Notstupid30

[Tywais]

Thai Airways was aware that this model Airbus had problems with its landing gear for years, so the Thais say.

There is a known issue with the A330 Bogie beam so they would be aware of it. Or are you assuming they are making it all up? Airworthiness Directive A330 31-Oct-2011

During ground load test cycles on an A340-600 aeroplane, the MLG bogie

beam has prematurely fractured.

The results of the investigation identified that this premature fracture was

due to high tensile standing stress, resulting from dry fit axle assembly

method. Improvement has been introduced subsequently with a grease fit

axle assembly method.

Fatigue and damage tolerance analyses were performed, whose results

demonstrated that the current life limit of certain MLG bogie beams with

dry fit axles installed on A330 aeroplanes only must be reduced compared

to the life limit stated in the A330 Airworthiness Limitations Section (ALS)

Part 1- Safe Life Airworthiness Limitation Items revision 05 approved by

EASA on 29 July 2010.

Failure to comply with the reduced life limit of the MLG bogie beam with

dry fit axle might jeopardize the MLG structural integrity.

For the reasons described above, this AD requires the replacement of the

affected MLG bogie beams before reaching the new reduced life limit.

[JoeThePoster]

THAI president Sorajak Kasemsuvan had conducted a ceremony to pray for the smooth removal of the plane Wednesday morning after heavy rain delayed salvage efforts on Tuesday night.

What's the opposite of a Bung Fai ceremony?

[toybits]

What else is Thai International, Thai Airways NOT TELLING US?

Edited September 12, 2013 by metisdead
Large font reset to normal.

[worgeordie]

The Thai mechanics probably said the front wheel needs

alignment and balancing,just take it easy when landing!

regards Worgeordie

[55Jay]

Paint the bogie bars black. Sorted.

[1plumber]

A friend of mine delivers new aircraft worldwide for Boeing. Granted he is biased but he describes Airbus products as "disposable aircraft" I think about that every time I board one.

[ginjag]

A friend of mine delivers new aircraft worldwide for Boeing. Granted he is biased but he describes Airbus products as "disposable aircraft" I think about that every time I board one.

Dreamliner new tested comes to mind.

[Redhawk]

Remebers me on Lauda Air 004 accident of 1991 26th May, they were aware of the Thrust Reverser problems, in this case here Thai Airways had luck again but everyones luck streak sometimes end and than we might have to bemoan loss of lives. The management act irresponsibly, bad leaders bad stuff not the other way around as the guys upstairs would like to make us believe!

[EyesWideOpen]

So basically it comes to whether or not Thai airways complied with the AD notice ( Airworthiness Directive) on the landing gear.

Airbus will not allow Thailand to sweep this under the rug, with implied blame on the plane. So the truth on this issue will come

out at some point.

[beechguy]

A history of problems with the landing gear? Oh, that's reassuring.

So are you going to stop flying Airbus products? You do understand this problem isn't specific to Thailand?

[peterbkk9]

This TG A330 landing incident seems to unleash so many passions. Sometimes unjustified nastiness. Isn't that a bit too much?

I am sure the official investigation report will conclude THAI did a good job as far as maintenance is concerned.

However they certainly could have handled post-incident communication better (ex: repainting of the logo, etc...) which gave critics the ammunition they were waiting for.

Let's wait for the official report.

[Soutpeel]

Thai Airways was aware that this model Airbus had problems with its landing gear for years, so the Thais say.

There is a known issue with the A330 Bogie beam so they would be aware of it. Or are you assuming they are making it all up? Airworthiness Directive A330 31-Oct-2011

During ground load test cycles on an A340-600 aeroplane, the MLG bogie

beam has prematurely fractured.

The results of the investigation identified that this premature fracture was

due to high tensile standing stress, resulting from dry fit axle assembly

method. Improvement has been introduced subsequently with a grease fit

axle assembly method.

Fatigue and damage tolerance analyses were performed, whose results

demonstrated that the current life limit of certain MLG bogie beams with

dry fit axles installed on A330 aeroplanes only must be reduced compared

to the life limit stated in the A330 Airworthiness Limitations Section (ALS)

Part 1- Safe Life Airworthiness Limitation Items revision 05 approved by

EASA on 29 July 2010.

Failure to comply with the reduced life limit of the MLG bogie beam with

dry fit axle might jeopardize the MLG structural integrity.

For the reasons described above, this AD requires the replacement of the

affected MLG bogie beams before reaching the new reduced life limit.

As other posters have commented did Thai airways act on this notification ? If they were informed of this by airbus, which they would have been, but failed to carry out the remedial work, then all liability for this accident is on them not airbus

So if Thai starts mud slinging at airbus, all they will do is state Thai airways were informed of this condition on XXXX date and never carried out the required work, if it hasn't been done

[Soutpeel]

This TG A330 landing incident seems to unleash so many passions. Sometimes unjustified nastiness. Isn't that a bit too much?

I am sure the official investigation report will conclude THAI did a good job as far as maintenance is concerned.

However they certainly could have handled post-incident communication better (ex: repainting of the logo, etc...) which gave critics the ammunition they were waiting for.

Let's wait for the official report.

Er if they haven't carried out the required remediation work as detailed in the AD, they haven't done good maintenance work...as somebody pointed out profit over safety

[Soutpeel]

The other thing that could be commented on, Thai have already concluded that this failure is due to a faulty part ? Referencing the AD the failure talked about one assumes is a fatigue failure, therefore I am very impressed that the thai technical services has managed to get the metallography, micro graphs, and one presumes the SEM studies of the fracture surfaces done so quickly to come to the conclusion that the root cause of the failure was due to a fatigue failure as a result of a faulty component.

In the west these sorts of studies, would take some weeks to do and conclusions drawn

Personally I think what has happened is that Thai have come across this AD, or where fully aware of it and as a knee jerk reaction, but the blame squarely on this and by default airbus without fully completing an investigation.

[peterbkk9]

This TG A330 landing incident seems to unleash so many passions. Sometimes unjustified nastiness. Isn't that a bit too much?

I am sure the official investigation report will conclude THAI did a good job as far as maintenance is concerned.

However they certainly could have handled post-incident communication better (ex: repainting of the logo, etc...) which gave critics the ammunition they were waiting for.

Let's wait for the official report.

Er if they haven't carried out the required remediation work as detailed in the AD, they haven't done good maintenance work...as somebody pointed out profit over safety

wait for the official report.

[Soutpeel]

This TG A330 landing incident seems to unleash so many passions. Sometimes unjustified nastiness. Isn't that a bit too much?

I am sure the official investigation report will conclude THAI did a good job as far as maintenance is concerned.

However they certainly could have handled post-incident communication better (ex: repainting of the logo, etc...) which gave critics the ammunition they were waiting for.

Let's wait for the official report.

Er if they haven't carried out the required remediation work as detailed in the AD, they haven't done good maintenance work...as somebody pointed out profit over safety

wait for the official report.

Er which one ? The one that blames airbus or the one that blames Thai.......we are playing the corporate blame game and fingers will be pointed in both directions and eventually the pilot will cop the blame for human error

If have absolutely no problem waiting for the official report, but seeing as Thai themselves are preempting the official report by already apportioning a root cause, no reason why this cant be debated already

Edited September 12, 2013 by Soutpeel

[ginjag]

This TG A330 landing incident seems to unleash so many passions. Sometimes unjustified nastiness. Isn't that a bit too much?

I am sure the official investigation report will conclude THAI did a good job as far as maintenance is concerned.

However they certainly could have handled post-incident communication better (ex: repainting of the logo, etc...) which gave critics the ammunition they were waiting for.

Let's wait for the official report.

Er if they haven't carried out the required remediation work as detailed in the AD, they haven't done good maintenance work...as somebody pointed out profit over safety

wait for the official report.

I'll wait for the assessment of the assessment of the report.

[beechguy]

This TG A330 landing incident seems to unleash so many passions. Sometimes unjustified nastiness. Isn't that a bit too much?

I am sure the official investigation report will conclude THAI did a good job as far as maintenance is concerned.

However they certainly could have handled post-incident communication better (ex: repainting of the logo, etc...) which gave critics the ammunition they were waiting for.

Let's wait for the official report.

Er if they haven't carried out the required remediation work as detailed in the AD, they haven't done good maintenance work...as somebody pointed out profit over safety

wait for the official report.

Er which one ? The one that blames airbus or the one that blames Thai.......we are playing the corporate blame game and fingers will be pointed in both directions and eventually the pilot will cop the blame for human error

If have absolutely no problem waiting for the official report, but seeing as Thai themselves are preempting the official report by already apportioning a root cause, no reason why this cant be debated already

And there will be a paper trail of maintenance paper work, etc. by Thai Air. That may not be made public, but I'm sure if there is a question Airbus would get a look. Until then, mostly all I have seen are ignorant comments by people who don't know anything about the aviation business, and that may include Thai Air management from the look in the news media.

[bobfish]

Agree with peterbkk9 and beechguy.

A lot of armchair aviation opinions - remind me a little of the old quote 'it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than speak out and remove all doubt'.