Thai Airways International dumb to paint over logo

[marcusd]

The thing is, this incident wouldn't have attracted as much international coverage as it has, if Thai hadn't painted over the logo, the thing they were trying to do....ie de-indentify the plane has put more of a spot light on this incident than it most likely have got normally so a PR cock up in the first instance , now compounded by a senior person in Thai blaming bad spirits....really going to instill confidence in tourists in choosing That as their preferred air line....

It's seems to me, Thai have made a relevantly simple if unfortunate incident, which could have PR'ed pretty easily and turned it into a circus and drawing attention to themselves and the all important face, which is the thing they set out to avoid...lesson for Thai engade the brain before opening the mouth...

The really sad thing for me is... Thai isa major intrrbational THAI company. If this is the MANAGEMENT they have...god help thailand

Sent from my GT-N7000B using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Ricardo]

nothing new, this is the same incident procedure in other international carriers - cover the tail, cover the brand, by whatever methods.

yeah, with a BLACK paint is a bit too obvious !

White-wash would surely have been much more appropriate !

[Gsxrnz]

What they gonna paint on the plane next?

"FOR SALE"

In Chinese ?

Nuh. I had a busted bookcase that I put outside my gate for rubbish collection. In the 5 minutes I went inside to get a shelf that went with it, some bugger nicked the bookcase.

Maybe Thai are hoping the same bugger will come along one night and nick the busted plane?

Side note - I left the shelf and secretly watched it for 20 minutes, no action. Went for a 5 minute leak and it was gone. Now I'm thinking it's them <deleted> Thai Airways ghosts!

[metisdead]

A post containing a disguised link to Bangkok Post has been removed.

[JeezeLooeze]

Am I missing something, is the OP a piece of commissioned editorial for 'Kenyon International Emergency Services'? What a whacky piece of writing. A bit like the untidy painting over of the Thai Logo, maybe it was done by a 'ghost writer'.

Yes it does seem like it. One must go two link clicks aways from this Phuket News article to the original Bangkok Post article to find out Kenyon International Emergency Services were not involved in any way in the "crisis communications plan" of this accident. This paint cover-up that went very sour is proof that THAI have no crisis communications plan.

I could embed a link here to the original article but this post will get deleted. It seems that Thai-Visa may have a deal with The Nation to delete references to its rival newspaper.

[TomTao]

All that painting over the logo and blaming spirits has done is turn a spotlight onto Thai International management, and turn an accident that could easily been explained by a report after expert analisis of the aircraft into an international embarrassment that is not so easily covered up with a shoddy paint job or a rediculous explanation.

[Mosha]

Other airlines do it. Alitalia in February, TWA 1992

Edited September 15, 2013 by Mosha

[WhizBang]

Other airlines do it. Alitalia in February, TWA 1992

Is that the best you can do? 20 plus years ago.

[ratcatcher]

What they gonna paint on the plane next?

"FOR SALE"

In Chinese ?

They may well put a For Sale sign on it, but with the proviso underneath "Not for sale to Saudi Arabians"

[loogkreung]

The Thai airways board have shot themselves in the foot here. They've drawn a lot more attention to the accident than had they just kept quiet. The pressure to protect a reputation in this industry though is enormous, so it's understandable why they did it.

[dudu]

So the public now has a chance to see, that Thai airways would lie and cover up the cause of fault, thus losing any trust or credibility they might have had.

[phosphorescent]

Judging from the picture in the OP, I think the pilot was extremely skillful to land directly on top of a big pile of mattresses. A feather in the caps of pro littering campaigners too!

[JoeThePoster]

It was not them who overpainted the logo, the spirits did it !!!!

Yeh, they were later identified as Johnny, Chivas, Lao Khao & Sangthip.

[harrry]

Spirits were apeased here too.

http://www.nycaviation.com/2011/01/alaska-airlines-launches-new-hawaii-service-from-bellingham-washington/#.UjWOaMZmiG4

and here

http://www.examiner.com/article/hawaiian-airlines-airbus-a330-200-gets-a-blessing-from-the-skies

Edited September 15, 2013 by harrry

[Soutpeel]

let me suggest...to do a paint job to cover the logo or anywhere else .use a colour same as the aircraft body colour...then this will serve the purpose of whatever reason they are doing it...

and don't forget the painting on the tail , they better just wrap it in dark plastic so the whole plane is gone

They should employ David Copperfield next time, he will make the whole plane disappear if they want

[Soutpeel]

The Thai airways board have shot themselves in the foot here. They've drawn a lot more attention to the accident than had they just kept quiet. The pressure to protect a reputation in this industry though is enormous, so it's understandable why they did it.

They should have employed the following basic management technique.....when in the shit, look straight ahead and say nothing...

[delgarcon]

Originally, THAI official Smud Poom-on said that hiding the airline's name and logo was a recommendation from the Star Alliance group known as the ''crisis communication rule'', and was intended to protect the image of both the airline and other members of Star Alliance.

Obviously another typing error, I know for a fact that this guy's name is Smudge Poo on!

[Mosha]

Other airlines do it. Alitalia in February, TWA 1992

Is that the best you can do? 20 plus years ago.

Just saying it;s not just Thais. Alitalia was THIS year

[Tomtomtom69]

Unfortunately, the Logo brouhaha has obscured a far more important and alarming issue coming out of this incident: the shockingly deficient response of Thai staff to the needs of the aircraft's passengers.

According to news reports in the international press, the passengers, including several suffering injuries from the excape slide, were put in buses at the crash scene, bused to the terminal where they waited more than 30 minutes before being allowed to disembark. There were virtually no Thai staff trained in disaster response at the terminal reception area: no water, no medical personnel, no assistance what so ever.

There were reports that those who had followed instructions to leave personal belongings in the aircraft during the evacuation were treated rudely by Immigration staff when they did not have their travel documents.

To me, this shows the major weakness typical to many Thai businesses, no decision making by mid-level managers; always waiting for word from the top, terrified to take any initiative.

To me it shows sheer ignorance and stupidity for making something as unimportant as carrying a passport when you are escaping from a potential disaster to be an issue when it's not. Oh yeah imagine what would have happened if the aircraft had erupted into a fireball and half the passengers were still on board trying to retrieve their passports because Thai immigration requires passengers to always be in possession of their passports and if they had died due to this waste of time! Passports can always be retrieved later on once the calamity has settled and passengers can then be processed afterwards.

I remember an incident back on July 7, 2008 I think it was, when my Lufthansa flight from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh was first delayed, then canceled due to a technical fault, something which took about 3-4 hours (luckily I had a business class seat so I was able to wait in the lounge). The mostly Vietnamese (and other foreign passengers) were up in arms about their treatment when Thai immigration took a full two hours to "cancel" our outgoing Thai immigration stamps. Even when I asked a simple question about how long it would take before being processed and taken to our hotel (I asked politely and calmly in fluent Thai) I was rebuffed by angry officials and employees who told me "ro kohn!" (i.e. wait!) in a very rude manner. Most of their effort was of course taken up by trying to control angry Vietnamese and farang, who are generally more prone to showing their emotions than Thais, but this doesn't excuse the extremely poor management of this situation. Fortunately, we were all put up in the comfortable Suvarnabhumi Airport hotel with a great buffet dinner (and prior to that) a 300 Baht airport food voucher and free drinks and sandwiches before that.

Edited September 15, 2013 by Tomtomtom69

[daboyz1]

What does this interview sound like an ad for Kenyon International?

[jackr]

Originally, THAI official Smud Poom-on said that hiding the airline's name and logo was a recommendation from the Star Alliance group known as the ''crisis communication rule'', and was intended to protect the image of both the airline and other members of Star Alliance

And yet the Star Alliance logo remains.

[john stevens]

Obviously the management at TG was terrified of face.jpg

thats so very true .... thai all about saving face ....... surprised the pilot did'nt run home to his mom .....

[surangw]

interesting that they had the equipment and supplies at the ready to respond ( for painting)

[jbrain]

The thing is, this incident wouldn't have attracted as much international coverage as it has, if Thai hadn't painted over the logo, the thing they were trying to do....ie de-indentify the plane has put more of a spot light on this incident than it most likely have got normally so a PR cock up in the first instance , now compounded by a senior person in Thai blaming bad spirits....really going to instill confidence in tourists in choosing That as their preferred air line....

It's seems to me, Thai have made a relevantly simple if unfortunate incident, which could have PR'ed pretty easily and turned it into a circus and drawing attention to themselves and the all important face, which is the thing they set out to avoid...lesson for Thai engade the brain before opening the mouth...

After all, Thailand is known as the hub of stupid decisions.

[SantiSuk]

Gotta love the Thais.

First defence ... blame a foreigner (in this case Star Alliance)

[BKKdreaming]

interesting that they had the equipment and supplies at the ready to respond ( for painting)

did they use the official Thai Air Bamboo ladders ?

Edited September 15, 2013 by BKKdreaming

[crafty1]

Here's a reconstruction of the whole event!

[Maybole]

This is a standard practice. I saw BEA (remember them) do it to Viscount which ran off the runway at Glasgow in 1968

[rotary]

I think it is common practice for all airlines worldwide to paint out that logo no matter what country or company.

[eddie61]

I think they should blame it on Somchai in Klong Thom who sold them the "genuin originan" wheel bogie beam.