Thai airbus "blown off the runway" landing in Phuket resulting in near miss

[webfact]

Thai airbus "blown off the runway" landing in Phuket resulting in near miss

 

Image: Thairath

 

PHUKET: -- Nearly 140 passengers on a Thai jet had a scary experience Wednesday when the airbus was blown off the Phuket runway as it landed at Phuket International Airport.

 

Four tires burst in the incident and the runway was closed for two hours while damaged runway lights were gathered up, reported Thairath.

 

Fortunately the pilot of the the A350-900XWB plane managed to steer it back onto the runway and reach the gate with no injuries to passengers or crew.

 

The flight was TG 221 that had earlier left Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport at 6.38pm.

 

Airport director Monrudee Ketphan said it was a minor incident. But the runway was temporarily closed while the remains of three "runway edge lights" were collected. It was back to normal at 10.10pm.

 

Reporters saw the wheels of the plane covered in grass and Thai admitted that four tires had burst and that the plane could not be used for the return flight. Passengers were put on other flights.

 

Thai said that the plane touched down in conditions of heavy wind and rain and was blown sideways off the runway but the pilot was able to maintain control and reenter the runway and get to the gate.

 

An investigation into why the tires burst is underway. There were 138 passengers and 14 crew on the flight.

 

Source: Thairath

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2016-09-22

[KhunBENQ]

What a shame.

The highly appraised brand-new high tech plane already steered to the grass.

Ouch.

 

[Aussie69]

This is their brand new A350, it literally only left the factory weeks ago.  It would have been unfortunate if they had damaged it.

[merijn]

Planes are not blown off a runway.

Pilots that don't control their plane correctly are blown off.

This is classed as a runway overshoot and is considered a serious incident. (not a minor one)

[JacChang]

Our prayers are with the three runway edge lights.

[Dibbler]

Sounds like a case of learning to fly the new A350. Pilots learn to land in cross winds without event.

[LivinginKata]

14 crew ??  That seems a very lot ...

[webfact]

THAI new Airbus skids off runway in Phuket storm landing

Eakkapop Thongtub

 

An Airbus 350 XWB model bearing the Thai Airways logo rolls out of the paint shop. Two of them will be delivered to the national flag carrier in August and September. Photo: Courtesy of Airbus

 

PHUKET: -- A THAI Airways new Airbus A350 carrying 138 passengers and 14 crew members on board skidded off the runway while landing in strong wind and heavy rain at Phuket International Airport last night (Sept 21).

 

No people were injured in the incident.

 

THAI Flight TG 221 left Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok at 6:15pm and was making its landing in Phuket at 7:35pm when the aircraft skidded on touchdown and its left-side landing gear tracked into the verge beside the runway.

 

The landing gear suffered minor damage, but the pilot quickly brought the aircraft back under full control and safely brought the plane to rest on the apron.

 

Full story: http://www.thephuketnews.com/thai-new-airbus-skids-off-runway-in-phuket-storm-landing-59187.php

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2016-09-22

[SOTIRIOS]

...makes no sense....

 

...somebody's son or nephew had the job of checking/filling the tires...???

[fester the benevolent]

4 hours ago, LivinginKata said:

14 crew ??  That seems a very lot ...

 

1 cabin steward and 13 trainee pilots...

[merijn]

Latest pic from the plane landing gear.

Looks like a hard landing indeed.

 

[lvr181]

An inexperienced pilot. No more, no less. Pilots all around the world deal with worse landing situations in tricky winds.

[iang]

A brand new aircraft, so sounds like pilot error to me! With correct training, pilots can land in all but the worst crosswinds. And if the crosswinds were stop drastically severe, the pilot should have diverted!

[garryjohns]

7 hours ago, merijn said:

Planes are not blown off a runway.

Pilots that don't control their plane correctly are blown off.

This is classed as a runway overshoot and is considered a serious incident. (not a minor one)

 

 

Incidents do happen, and as in this case suggested wind shear is very likely and is very hard to anticipate/react to in time..happens often.

Brand new plane, i also would expect that one of their more senior/experienced captains would have been PIC [perk of the job].

 

This is not classed as a "runway overshoot" either, an overshoot is just that, ie if an aeroplane over shoots the end of the runway  , not sideways off the runway.

Anyway an official enquirey will soon ID the problem..its all there on computer.

[Kabula]

A minor incident....wrong.

 

The investigation may reveal a pilot at the controls with under 800 hours of flight time.  Combined with a wind gust or shear warning from the tower prior to landing, with other flights aborting their landing prior to the incident.

 

The passengers were very lucky a wing didn't strike the ground causing the plane to flip over.

 

Many flight incidents are weather related with young, inexperienced pilots who take too many risks, and ignore warnings.

 

Worldwide, many senior pilots have had their salaries cut in half as well as pensions.

 

Many have turned in their wings for higher paying, less stressful jobs where they can spend more time with their families.

 

Airlines worldwide are hiring younger pilots and many have less military flight experience as in the past.

[ericthai]

11 hours ago, merijn said:

Planes are not blown off a runway.

Pilots that don't control their plane correctly are blown off.

This is classed as a runway overshoot and is considered a serious incident. (not a minor one)

Dont think he overshot the runway as he was able to gain control and proceed to the gate, if he overshot he would be in stuck in dirt. He either undershot the runway hitting the lights before the runway or there were high cross winds and he was pushed sideways into the lights on the side. I mention the lights as they said glass was in the tires.  Also, Sorry disagree with you, plane can be blown off. I have been on a plane when it's blown off of the line up to the runway, the pilot had a hard time fighting the wind keeping the plane straight. They said he we had 50mph crosswinds causing the plane to be pushed (blown) off alignment. The only reason we were allowed to land was because we didn't have enough fuel to be diverted to another airport. All other flights were diverted and cancelled. 

[tifino]

 

this made me go'n'watch again that old XB-70 flaming tyre fire landing video again... 

[siam2007]

9 hours ago, SOTIRIOS said:

...makes no sense....

 

...somebody's son or nephew had the job of checking/filling the tires...???

 

 

 

nope, rather somebody's (some VIP probably) son or nephew has been allowed to act as "Captain" on this brand new aircraft without being properly trained

[Altalake]

Had to laugh at JacChang's dark humour. Very amusing. 

 

And Merijn is probably right (I speak as a pilot), aircraft do not usually get "blown off" the runway - sounds like pilot error to me..........

[Torrens54]

Almost one BUSTED AIRBUS!

[swanny321]

  Something on a runway got blown.....welcome to Thailand!

[Xircal]

Why on earth would Thai use an A350-900 long haul aircraft on such a short trip? It's no wonder they're in financial straits if that's an example of how they propose to utilise this type of aircraft.

 

It'll be interesting to see what the CVR and FDR reveal once they're published.

[Xircal]

13 hours ago, merijn said:

Planes are not blown off a runway.

Pilots that don't control their plane correctly are blown off.

This is classed as a runway overshoot and is considered a serious incident. (not a minor one)

 

It's classed as a runway excursion actually: http://www.faa.gov/airports/runway_safety/excursion/

 

[balo]

The pilot needs to get back to the simulator and get a few more training hours , It's a brand new plane . Not sure if A350 is very different from A330 but my guess is that the plane is not as heavy. 

 

[Jdietz]

They are indeed doing training flights for a while on these short hauls (more cycles for the "pilots"). Later these planes will be moved to long haul routes.

And normally the pilot will select "auto land", sit back and relax, and let the plane handle the wind sheer..

[fester the benevolent]

2 hours ago, Jdietz said:

They are indeed doing training flights for a while on these short hauls (more cycles for the "pilots"). Later these planes will be moved to long haul routes.

And normally the pilot will select "auto land", sit back and relax, and let the plane handle the wind sheer..

 

 

[Keesters]

19 hours ago, webfact said:

but the pilot was able to maintain control and

 

Should be

 

but the pilot was able to regain control and

 

If the pilot had maintained control the airplane would not have gone off the runway.

 

 

[n210mp]

19 hours ago, merijn said:

Planes are not blown off a runway.

Pilots that don't control their plane correctly are blown off.

This is classed as a runway overshoot and is considered a serious incident. (not a minor one)

 

 

A bit harsh old chap!

 

Do you speak from experience?

 

Overshoot, there was no overshoot as far as I can see from the report ? 

 

This will  possibly end in the pilot being considered to be in  "Pilot error"  though. (IMHO)

 

In other words was the pilot "in error" for not opting for the Overshoot procedure prior to touchdown? (which is possibly what you meat to say but didn't!.)

 

Most experienced and inexperienced  pilots will have an incident like this in their log books but it will not have meant the end of their flying career.

 

In climatic conditions as in South East Asia, the freak gusts and micro burst activity associated with fronts going through  airport approaches, especially in the so called rainy season  can catch the most experienced pilots out.

 

The pressure from "The company" to make the first landing and avoid an expensive  "Go around" together with maybe worsening weather conditions ensuing a possible expensive  flight to an "alternative airport"  exerts great pressures on any competent pilot.

 

Of course to "save face" and to make it appear that this is a rare incident, the pilot will no doubt have to face a competency check, be judged in pilot error,  go for some remedial training  and be back in the first pilots seat within no time (Just as it should be)

 

The link below should prove interesting  reading;

 

http://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/3.21338?journalCode=jgcd

 

 

[fred007]

This airport is well known for Wind Shears. I have spoken to many pilots who land there 

[n210mp]

12 hours ago, lvr181 said:

An inexperienced pilot. No more, no less. Pilots all around the world deal with worse landing situations in tricky winds.

 

 

Absolute rubbish!