Thai plane slips off runway, no injuries

[unanimosity]

Part owned subsidiary of Thai Airways.I cant quote the exact figure but it is less than 50 %.

Last figure I heard was around 40%. In any case Thai Airways is a minority shareholder, and in recent years Nok has operated almost entirely independently of it, much to THAI's irritation. No point in trying to tar THAI with this brush, excuse the metaphor.

No point either in speculation at this stage on the basis of a few garbled newspaper reports. Anyone seriously interested in following up incidents like this can do so on Pprune or other professional forums.

" Thai Airways is a minority shareholder, and in recent years Nok has operated almost entirely independently of it, much to THAI's irritation. No point in trying to tar THAI with this brush."

My thoughts exactly and that why I posted the correction.

Actually, it is owned by three guys named Larry, Curly, and Moe.....thus the name Nok Nok Nok.

[Soutpeel]

Lets get the facts first this time before jumping to any conclusions. And you WONT get the facts or reasons for this incident from any media or passenger comments. The official incident report will be the only document which will contain fact.

The official report is the only document which can be guaranteed to contain no fact whatsoever! The Thai DCA has no culture of safety, no knowledge of safety matters, and is concerned only with paper pushing and lip service to ICAO standards. Their primary concern in any incident is to assign blame ( preferably to a foreigner - any foreigner )and prosecute to the limit of the law, to cover up any shortcomings in their own systems, and to generate as much revenue - of which they get 30% - by way of fines as they can. Their investigators know nothing about aviation and would never call on outside experienced help - face must not be lost!

And your comments are based on what facts ? many years of working in the Thai commerical aviation industry or your just pulling these "facts" out your arse ?...seeing as your have factually stated Thai investigators have no knowlege of aviation, please give your professional experience in the Thai aviation industry to support this "fact" and no cheating please by looking sh*t up on Wiki

In conclusion the offical report may not contain any facts, but neither do your posts it seems

[bra]

Lets get the facts first this time before jumping to any conclusions. And you WONT get the facts or reasons for this incident from any media or passenger comments. The official incident report will be the only document which will contain fact.

The official report is the only document which can be guaranteed to contain no fact whatsoever! The Thai DCA has no culture of safety, no knowledge of safety matters, and is concerned only with paper pushing and lip service to ICAO standards. Their primary concern in any incident is to assign blame ( preferably to a foreigner - any foreigner )and prosecute to the limit of the law, to cover up any shortcomings in their own systems, and to generate as much revenue - of which they get 30% - by way of fines as they can. Their investigators know nothing about aviation and would never call on outside experienced help - face must not be lost!

And your comments are based on what facts ? many years of working in the Thai commerical aviation industry or your just pulling these "facts" out your arse ?...seeing as your have factually stated Thai investigators have no knowlege of aviation, please give your professional experience in the Thai aviation industry to support this "fact" and no cheating please by looking sh*t up on Wiki

In conclusion the offical report may not contain any facts, but neither do your posts it seems

I agree with the last comment. I suggest that those who may be interested in facts rather than trot out all the old jokes about painting out the logo and similar remarks read the Thai Aircraft Accident Investigation Report on the 1 2 Go accident at Phuket a couple of years ago. The report is professional and outside expertise was called in (the US ATSB, Boeing etc).

Runway excursions are not uncommon and occur in almost every country in the world - with established well known airlines to start ups. However the authorities at Udon Thani (long runway incidentally - takes wide body aircraft) appear to state that the aircraft exited the taxiway (not the runway) due to a mechanical fault.

However lets get the FACTs first before any more Nok Air, pilot, airport, and general Thai bashing. One of the respondents referred to the 3 stooges - a better reference would be Groucho Marx "Don't confuse me with facts - my mind is made up"

[Baloo22]

I just flew this flight last month. Chiang Mai to Udon Thani and back with Nok Air on a SAAB 340B. No problems at all.

Undoubtedly, it was my good charm and powerful aura that kept us all safe!

[fareastguy]

Those "peskie" spirits have obviously moved North after being encouraged to find new lodgings after being evicted from Swampy!!

That or in the rain the ineffective "bald tyres" have the same result as those on the road.. screech ohh "s**t no grip!!

[kkup]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.. Nok Air is dodgy, wouldn't surprise me if one day something really bad happens with these guys

[PETERTHEEATER]

It didn't happen on the runway but on the taxiway en route to the terminal.

[Soutpeel]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.. Nok Air is dodgy, wouldn't surprise me if one day something really bad happens with these guys

And pray tell why is Nok Air more dodgy than any other commerical airline in your vast aviation experience ?....I fly Nok air at least twice a month and actually find them better than Thai airways in many respects, in fact my last flight on them was a brand new aircraft.

What great insight you have shown...a commerical airline and something bad happening, every commerical airline in the world has had something "bad" happen at one time or another....!!!!!

[dickyknee]

I'll speculate, the hydraulics failed.

[frozin1]

I am not surprised by this event. I fly with Nok Air fairly frequently. Their pilots have a tendency towards high and hot approaches at the rural airports. Last trip into BFV was a real eye opener. I thought to my self at the time that commercial aircraft are not designed for aircraft carrier type landings and that the landing gear was being unnecessarily abused. No excuses for terrain or weather either as both were perfect. St. Barths is an example of a required high and hot approach and is considered one of the worlds most dangerous landings. There is simply no excuse for the landing on my flight. These pilots must have trained on that Thai aircraft carrier I've heard so much about.

F1

[Thait Spot]

I fly a lot internationally and domestically. Nok air is the best budget airline I've ever used and the staff are very well drilled.

One thing about the pilots on these smaller aircraft is that they know how to aviate.

It wouldn't surprise me if the engine story is a red herring as they tend to shut one engine down for taxying to save fuel.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[DGIE]

it's good it didn't slip when it was in the sky above the clouds

Edited October 6, 2013 by DGIE

[eloigorri]

If the aircraft involved was a SAAB 340B, it is operated by Nok Mini, formerly Siam General Aviation (SGA), a completely separate legal entity to Nok Air, but using their branding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nok_Mini

[sprq]

It didn't happen on the runway but on the taxiway en route to the terminal.

Precisely, as I would have stated hours ago if the Thaivisa log-in system had not been changed without any notice to users to make characters like & -- which I've used for donkeys' years -- unusable and therefore blocking my log-in and forcing a change of user name. But that's another story.

It is pretty clear -- though not crystal clear -- from this report that the plane did not go off the runway but off a taxiway. There is a huge difference, and virtually all the people commenting on this accident have not grasped it. Of course, the headline is wrong, but you should never trust headlines, because they are usually written by sub-editors who did not write the actual report and do not necessarily fully understand it, on top of which they're supposed to spice up the story with their headline, all of which leads to stupid and inaccurate headlines.

For the uninitiated, a runway is what planes use to land and take off. A taxiway is what planes use to move between the runway and their parking place. Amazingly, since they use airports a lot, many journalists do not know that, even in major news organisations.

Edited October 6, 2013 by sprq

[sprq]

I remember a long long time ago I heard someone say that any landing you can walk away from is a good landing. I also remember reading that a safe landing is nothing more than a seriously controlled crash.

Said by people whose glass is always half-empty and never half-full.

[tragickingdom]

Quite an achievement! The runways were constructed for B52 bombers. But it is the rainy season, we just have to wait for the helicopters and planes (mostly military) that will always fall out of the Thai skies every year.

[yooper2001]

Maybe the planes thai pilot was thinking he was driving a car and was swapping lanes on

Bangkok freeway

or maybe his tire blew out

[jackr]

Better get the paint out!

Someone should have a bit of foresight and paint everything black now for the inevitable--planes, trains, buses, politicians.

[annabel]

SLIPPED OFF the runway ...........?? Duh...? How does a plane SLIP OFF a runway .............???

[Thormaturge]

This is the second time Nok have had trouble with a nosewheel.

Either there is a problem with the nosewheels or with the maintenance schedule.

[pisico]

Better get the paint out!

mean but deserved

[hellodolly]

Maybe we should add to the warnings for thailand aviation...Slippery when wet.

That's funny.

We need a that's funny button on here.

I can see it all now Thailand the hub of airplanes slipping of the runway.

Do not let TAT know they will use it as proof that the tourist industry is attracting more people.

[pisico]

Quite an achievement! The runways were constructed for B52 bombers. But it is the rainy season, we just have to wait for the helicopters and planes (mostly military) that will always fall out of the Thai skies every year.

Constructed back in the 70's with nearly 1 meter deep of reinforced concrete. But... any maintenance since then?

The joint axle of the Airbus that malfunctioned in Bangkok was checked the last time 2 years ago.

Sorry! My mistake. That is part of Thai procedures of maintenance of everything: "wait until it breaks to repair or replace: only if it is strictly necessary."

[Torrens54]

Went off the runway "and had engine troubles"...probably more to this story than we will ever hear about.

Right. Until the next time when they have "engine troubles" mid air and then no amount of paint will be able to cover-up the disaster.

[hellodolly]

Better get the paint out!

Someone should have a bit of foresight and paint everything black now for the inevitable--planes, trains, buses, politicians.

I see you picked heartless objects.

[Roota]

However lets get the FACTs first before any more Nok Air, pilot, airport, and general Thai bashing.

Bra, as you probably know, trying to get the facts straight about any aviation story is almost impossible with a non-professional audience. People fly on airplanes, therefore they assume they know or can guess how aviation works. Not one in a hundred can be bothered to look into how things actually operate. Add in the usual cartoonish anti-Thai prejudice that informs much of this forum and it's the perfect recipe for a load of nonsense.

I'd be the last to claim that Thai general aviation is a model for the industry. But all in all, with the exception of one or two carriers (neither of which is Nok), the standards seem to be decent, and for your money you get a reasonably safe, efficient service. As for the investigation, well, one never really knows in this part of the world (even in Singapore -- cf. SilkAir 185), but it's certain to produce a whole lot more factual evidence than people here will ever bother to follow up.

[beautifulthailand99]

Thailand really needs to sort out it's ghost problem sharpish as they seem to be causing trouble all over the place particuarly in the transport infrastructure - maybe a governmental review into the efficacy of spirit houses would be a good place to start - I would like to see some sort of consensus of whether they should have a ladder or not.

[rakman]

Went off the runway "and had engine troubles"...probably more to this story than we will ever hear about.

Loss of strait line braking due to engine problems is usually a reverse thrust defect with one of the props, if an engine is playing up before engaging reverse thrust it shouldn't be selected (you'd think!). The pilots in this scenario should rely on their wheel brakes.

On TurboProp planes, the engines are usually set to a speed (taxi) and the prop pitch is set for forward or reverse thrust as necessary. Sometimes the prop pitch mechanism malfunctions but one can always pull the throttle to not make the situation worse. And there are wheel brakes.

Novel braking manuver using a berm.

[jacknorman]

They do planes as they do running cars, and we all know how good they do that, don't we ???

[webfact]

ACCIDENT
Rough landing for Nok Air flight
The Nation



BANGKOK: -- A Nok Air flight from Chiang Mai yesterday skidded off the runway on landing in Udon Thani, reportedly because of a fault in its landing gear - the second incident for the airline in three months.

All 26 passengers and crew on the plane escaped unhurt.

Udon Thani vice governor Narong Ponlaiard was at the scene. He was briefed by a Nok Air officer who attributed the accident to a landing gear fault.

He said on touching down, the pilot was unable to turn right on the taxiway.

The front wheel collapsed and the pilot decided to hit the earthen wall on the side. The plane stopped about 600 metres from the passenger terminal.

Flight DD8610 left Chiang Mai at 7.25am and landed in Udon Thani at 8.45am.

On August 7, the airline also reported an accident in Trang. Its Bangkok-bound flight slid off the runway at Trang airport while preparing for takeoff in heavy rain. All 142 passengers on Flight DD 7411, many of them foreign tourists, and crew escaped injury.

-- The Nation 2013-10-07