Flight cancelled after lantern pieces found blocking turbine

[Lite Beer]

Flight cancelled after lantern pieces found blocking turbine
The Nation

CHIANG MAI: -- A Bangkok Airways flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok was cancelled after pieces of a paper lantern were found stuck to an engine turbine fan, a senior official at Chiang Mai airport said yesterday.

Wisut Chanthana, director of the Chiang Mai International Airport, said the foreign objects were found during an inspection on Thursday night before the plane took off and the flight had to be cancelled for safety reasons. Passengers were transferred to other flights.

Wisut said that on New Year's Day alone, more than 200 flying lanterns fell in the aviation area, far more than during Loy Krathong in November.

Releasing lit paper lanterns is popular in the North during celebrations and locals have been warned against doing this near airports.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Flight-cancelled-after-lantern-pieces-found-blocki-30251122.html

-- The Nation 2015-01-03

[MESmith]

"foreign objects"

Couldn't possibly be Thai

[ldnguy]

"foreign objects"

Couldn't possibly be Thai

Foreign to the plane not foreign to Thailand.

[ezzra]

When and if one of those plane will crush after sucking this stuff into the engine, there will

be no need to recover the black boxes... only in this country those shenanigans allowed

to happened under the fight path... great...

[Rob8891]

"foreign objects"

Couldn't possibly be Thai

DUH!

[Loles]

People don't want to understand the safety rules here.

They send up their paper bomb with fire and may occur fire any-where or crash of airplane.

Mai pen rai.

The most important is they think they will be lucky with it.

Disgusting this selfishness.

[oneday]

Well they need to be much more specific than saying "near the airport". Those lanterns can travel long distances before coming down.

[Torrens54]

"foreign objects"

Couldn't possibly be Thai

Obviously, the BURMESE have struck again.

[soalbundy]

I wouldn't have thought that those flimsy lanterns would be a problem for a jet engine. I have seen tests done on a Rolls Royce jet engine that managed to ingest a dead goose without problems

[oneday]

I wouldn't have thought that those flimsy lanterns would be a problem for a jet engine. I have seen tests done on a Rolls Royce jet engine that managed to ingest a dead goose without problems

You may be right to a certain extent, but how many time do you think an engine can such a lantern in before it blows up or flies apart? Do you really want them to take a chance that the engine is OK and just let it go on its next flight? Given how finely balanced those rotating blades are and the speed at which they rotate...would you want to be flying on a plane that takes ANYTHING into the intake of an engine? NOT ME!

[mikemac]

Perhaps they should bench-test these engines by throwing paper and wire into them, not birds. At certain times of the year there are a lot more lanterns up there than birds.

[evadgib]

I wouldn't have thought that those flimsy lanterns would be a problem for a jet engine. I have seen tests done on a Rolls Royce jet engine that managed to ingest a dead goose without problems

Was it on fire and in the air?

[Sparkles]

Had just been sitting outside the same night and remarked to my wife that there were a lot of lanterns in the sky.I thought it was just a Loy Krathong thing but obviously not.

We then sat and watched a SKY News report on the progress of the recovery of the Air Asia flight and my mind drifted back to all those lanterns up there as a plane came into land (we are on the flight path) Russian roulette came to mind and wasn't there a threat from the Government to imprison anyone who let of a lantern for the Loy Krathong celebrations.

Nothing about NYE.

[Nemesis7]

Thank god it was spotted. Those paper lantern can be bloody hell dangerous and must be strictly regulated.

[Lite Beer]

Flight grounded in Chiang Mai by New Year lantern

CHIANG MAI: A New Year hot-air lantern sucked into the engine of a Bangkok Airways jet at Chiang Mai airport forced authorities to cancel a flight on Thursday (January 1).

Images posted on Facebook yesterday (January 2) showing pieces of the lantern in the engine of an Airbus A320 plane at Chiang Mai airport drew criticism from many online users and were shared widely on social media.

Facebook user Bearly de Grizzly, who posted the images, said airport officials found lantern pieces and this prompted authorities to immediately cancel the flight on Thursday night for safety reasons. Passengers had to be transferred to other flights.

He claimed to be a technician for the Department of Civil Aviation.

Another Facebook user, Janat Sanguansak, posted a message saying the incident took place at 7.40pm. The plane which had flown from Suvarnabhumi airport was waiting for passengers at Chiang Mai airport.

During a pre-flight inspection, officials found that a lantern had become stuck in the engine, wrote the netizen.

“Luckily, it did not get stuck in the engine while in the air. If it had, it could have caught fire and led to an engine explosion ... who would have been be held responsible for the plane crash and deaths?” the Facebook user asked.

He lambasted people who release hot-air lanterns – supposedly to float their misfortunes away – for ignoring the safety of other people.

More than 3,000 Facebook users shared the images and many criticised whoever released the lantern.

“The traditional belief of some [that releasing a lantern will ward off his/her bad luck] will lead to a tragedy for other people,” Facebook user Nate Aquarius wrote.

Lanterns are a mainstay of November’s Loy Krathong celebration and cause a myriad problems for airports around the country.

This year airlines serving Chiang Mai airport cancelled 112 flights and rescheduled 50 others to avoid problems with the lanterns.

The airport warned airlines to exercise additional caution during this holiday period. More than 200 lanterns landed around Chiang Mai airport over New Year.

-- Phuket News 2015-01-03

[soalbundy]

I wouldn't have thought that those flimsy lanterns would be a problem for a jet engine. I have seen tests done on a Rolls Royce jet engine that managed to ingest a dead goose without problems

Was it on fire and in the air?

It was a ground test with the engine bolted to a test frame, the engine was running and the goose,followed by a couple of chicken carcasses i believe were fired out of a pipe under high pressure to simulate a speeding aircraft, no damage to the engine, lot of burnt mince meat. I think you can find it o youtube

[oldsailor35]

Sometimes of an evening, sitting on the beach of Maenam or Bophut i see these paper lanterns drifting away to the sth east directly into the flight path of aircraft approaching a landing at Samui airport, if an aircraft coming in at such low altitude were to suck one of these in and loose engine power, it could be disastrous .

[Gonzo the Face]

I wouldn't have thought that those flimsy lanterns would be a problem for a jet engine. I have seen tests done on a Rolls Royce jet engine that managed to ingest a dead goose without problems

Was it on fire and in the air?

No.... the goose was cooked...

[lee b]

Well they need to be much more specific than saying "near the airport". Those lanterns can travel long distances before coming down.

Very true. They have zoned areas which were put in place during the Loy kratong festival, all around the airport and nearby for a certain distance was classed at zone 1, which meant absolutly no flying of sky lanterns. ( or something similar, i only saw the article once and never heard anything more from it )

[jabis]

I wondered the same at Loy Krathong-time, and I'd recall the safety zone was decided 5 miles(do correct me if wrong) from the airport. Many disregarded with half arsed excuses back then

Wonder how costly it will become, if the borescope inspection shows signs of damage to the fan blades

[billd766]

I wouldn't have thought that those flimsy lanterns would be a problem for a jet engine. I have seen tests done on a Rolls Royce jet engine that managed to ingest a dead goose without problems

I found this on the internet which may give some idea of what happens in a bird strike. A lantern may nor do as much damage but it does ahve a wire framework.

http://www.southbayriders.com/forums/threads/94294/

[wabothai]

Why even schedule a flight during times that masses of lanterns are released. Beats me !!!!!

Most of the releasers are unaware or don't realize there may be a crash caused by their lantern.

Or is it that the government, eager to control, is too busy partying during these periods?

[IAMHERE]

I wouldn't have thought that those flimsy lanterns would be a problem for a jet engine. I have seen tests done on a Rolls Royce jet engine that managed to ingest a dead goose without problems

Was it on fire and in the air?

No proof that these lanterns were in the air and on fire. Well could have been sucked up into the engine from off the runways as the plane landed or taxied to the gate.

[jabis]

I wouldn't have thought that those flimsy lanterns would be a problem for a jet engine. I have seen tests done on a Rolls Royce jet engine that managed to ingest a dead goose without problems

Was it on fire and in the air?

No proof that these lanterns were in the air and on fire. Well could have been sucked up into the engine from off the runways as the plane landed or taxied to the gate.

I re-posted the images in the original sky lantern topic - most of the scrapt seems to be in the compression chamber, and there is a lot of it ( my guess the crap was sucked in there while taxiing ); http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/774459-authorities-scramble-in-vain-to-curb-loy-krathong-sky-lanterns/?p=8887486

[soalbundy]

I wouldn't have thought that those flimsy lanterns would be a problem for a jet engine. I have seen tests done on a Rolls Royce jet engine that managed to ingest a dead goose without problems

I found this on the internet which may give some idea of what happens in a bird strike. A lantern may nor do as much damage but it does ahve a wire framework.

http://www.southbayriders.com/forums/threads/94294/

Obviously there are problems

[evadgib]

I wouldn't have thought that those flimsy lanterns would be a problem for a jet engine. I have seen tests done on a Rolls Royce jet engine that managed to ingest a dead goose without problems

Was it on fire and in the air?

It was a ground test with the engine bolted to a test frame, the engine was running and the goose,followed by a couple of chicken carcasses i believe were fired out of a pipe under high pressure to simulate a speeding aircraft, no damage to the engine, lot of burnt mince meat. I think you can find it o youtube

Mine was a tongue in cheek reference to the fact that fire and altitude aren't replicated in ground tests.

[MESmith]

I wouldn't have thought that those flimsy lanterns would be a problem for a jet engine. I have seen tests done on a Rolls Royce jet engine that managed to ingest a dead goose without problems

Was it on fire and in the air?

It was a ground test with the engine bolted to a test frame, the engine was running and the goose,followed by a couple of chicken carcasses i believe were fired out of a pipe under high pressure to simulate a speeding aircraft, no damage to the engine, lot of burnt mince meat. I think you can find it o youtube

Mine was a tongue in cheek reference to the fact that fire and altitude aren't replicated in ground tests.

Posts to this forum often go "way over" some reader's heads, at very high altitude, sometimes

[Shiver]

I wouldn't have thought that those flimsy lanterns would be a problem for a jet engine. I have seen tests done on a Rolls Royce jet engine that managed to ingest a dead goose without problems

Yeah, but make sure you defrost it first.

(actually I think that frozen bird joke was in reference to a high speed train window screen rather than an engine).

[Edit]: This was what I was alluding to: http://www.snopes.com/science/cannon.asp

[hmficc]

CXL the flights and fly the lanterns. Many expats complain about the unfortunate changed globilazation has inflicted on "our Chiang Mai". Screw the planes.

I would love to see a video of jet engie sucking up a goose. I think Captain Sullenberger would too.

As a young man I did 6 year as radar ATC. Watched a B737 destroy an engine on short final too a short runway in Kodiak ,Ak. Sucked up a adverage sieze sea gull.

Some years later he turned up as a guest at a hotel I ran in the Virgin Islands. Strange coincidence. Scared the s**** out of him. The landing not the hotel.

Fly the fire in the sky! They are beautiful.

[cookee68]

Yes like as if the Thai people are going to listen to that, they don't understand safety and never will, best thing to do is to ban the lanterns, lets see how long it will be before there is a big death toll due to those lantens