Plane crash - Phuket, Thailand

Plane crash - Phuket, Thailand

news.bbc.co.uk

Plane crashes in Thailand resort


A plane has crashed while trying to land in bad weather at the Thai resort of Phuket, an aviation official says.

The plane, carrying 123 passengers, crashed after hitting the runway heavily in strong winds and heavy rain.

Aviation official Chiasak Angkauwan said the number of casualties was unclear but that there were thought to be fatalities.

(visit the link for the full news article)

According to reports the plane broke in two - doesn't sound too good.

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

I live on Phuket and local news is reporting that there are at least 60 bodies and approx 40 injuries. It only happened a couple of hours ago and the weather is very bad so....


they are also mostly tourists (not that it makes a difference of course).

Hi

I also live in Phuket.

My mate was supposed to be on the doomed flight but luckily changed flight at the last minute as he couldn't get a seat for his girlfriend.

The plane is believed to have skidded on landing due to bad weather and crashed into an embankment. Fire broke out within the plane and later exploded breaking up the plane.

One survivor said he had to step over people on fire to get out...he was worried it would explode so ran away.

Terrible news as I think my mates friends were on the flight!

Thai TV has been showing footage of survivors in hospital...some Brits.

At least 87 died. Many tourists. Survivors are badly burnt

Originally posted by Golack
The pilot must have said phuket.

Bad taste dude, but with 24hr news ramming tradidgeys down your neck 24hrs a day I can't blame.

I have not been able to find out the type of airplane. Can anybody help?

reply to post by johnlear


I believe it was a MD-82

Heres more on this, apparently tried to do a go around:

Visibility at Phuket was poor as the pilot attempted to land. The crew decided to make a go-around but the plane crashed. It struck trees, broke in two and caught fire.

aviation-safety.net...

Does the [url= web address]text[/url ] BBCode not work anymore?



[edit on 16-9-2007 by apex]

Originally posted by Hellmutt

I believe it was a MD-82

Thanks Hellmutt, I thought that is what the top of the vertical stabilizer was showing it to be but wasn't sure.

sounds as if the pilot had been circling overhead for a while, tried to land, it went wrong but the plane clipped some trees before they could abort the take off. The aborted take off failed and the plane broke in two on impact.

I've been to Phuket - not a particularly big or memorable airport, but I do remember how weather conditions can change very quickly. I remember sitting by the hotel pool in the sun and a large black cloud almost swooping over the nearby hillside. It was like a cartoon with a big clap of thunder and real torrential rain happening instantly.

Sorry I don't really have much to add.But the immature side of me called me here to say..........

Phuket

Of course I double posted sigh.On the other hand does anyone know how often incidents like this occur in Thailand?



[edit on 16-9-2007 by Project_Silo]

Originally posted by Project_Silo
Of course I double posted sigh.On the other hand does anyone know how often incidents like this occur in Thailand?

17 since 1990, 8 of them with fatalities.

aviation-safety.net...

reply to post by apex


Wow that seems like a lot to me.I'm going to go see how many happen in the U.S. I'll throw the results up.

Of course I can't find any on google hrmm.Can't even find them at the Department Of Transportation.

[edit on 16-9-2007 by Project_Silo]

Well its all here:
aviation-safety.net...

But don't forget, this site includes pretty much everything that didn't go down in a war.

reply to post by apex


ahh nice thanks.That website could come in handy some time.

Well here's my opinion on what can go wrong on a go-around. I've sure had my share and they weren't all textbook I can tell you that.

You are down there trying to get the airplane on the ground, the wind is jostling you around, changing direction, changing speed, with severe gusts, its difficult to see with the rain on the windshield, the windshield wipers are banging away CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK, or the max airflow used to clear the rain off of the windows sounds like a tornado raging through the cockpit. There was a nifty little device when the 707 came out many years ago called the Boeing Rainbow systrem. You would push a button and squirt some stuff on the windshield and it would become totally clear. It became illegal to use it in the late 70's for some health reason. But anyway you can't seem to get the airplane on the ground so its time to GO. ROTATE UP 15 to 20 DEGREES, MAX POWER, FLAPS TAKEOFF and this should get you up, up and away but here is what happens, or actually the things that go wrong:

Forget to add fullmax power. (I've done it.)
Forget to pull up steep enough. (I've done it)
Forget the flaps. (airplane will then not accelerate fast enough)(I've done it.)
Get disoriented transitioning from looking outside to land to back on instruments (now you are instantly back in the clouds and you have to instantly transition back to the instruments which is difficult to do because your instruments might not be telling you what you expect to see.)
What happens if you mess this one up is very shortly you come out of the clouds in a steep bank and you can't recover in time. One wing hits the ground and comes off and then its a real handful to fly.

I flew for 40 years and I'm glad its over. It was fun for most of that time but then I got old and not as sharp as I used to be.

Now I just rather sit here and second guess some poor guy whose out there trying to stay alive.

This is a terrible tragedy. I was in a small plane and flew in to Koh Samui, on the other side of the Malay Peninsula from Phuket. I can't imagine how scary that would have been in a storm.

But for everyone making puns on the name of the place, it's actually pronounced poo-KET. I used to make the same mistake.