A Thai Airways Boeing 747-400 skidded off a runway in Bangkok after landing in torrential rains.
It’s monsoon season in Thailand, creating fierce storms that pummel the earth with concentrated spurts of rain. Thai Airways flight 679 was approaching Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok (BKK) from Guangzhou, China (CAN) on Monday night in the midst of such a storm.
Moments after touching down, the plane slid about 100 meters (328 meters) past it intended stopping point on the tarmac and right onto the grass nearby. 97 passengers and 18 crew members were onboard. Passengers evacuated the aircraft via inflatable slide.
A Thai Airways Boeing 747-400 carrying 97 passengers and 18 crew members from Guangzhou skidded off a runway while landing at Suvarnabhumi airport in heavy rain late Monday. There were no injuries.
♦️ THAI 747 slides off Suvarnabhumi runway on landing https://t.co/y47Keo6rm9 pic.twitter.com/AL5BtBsihr
— Richard Barrow in Thailand (@RichardBarrow) October 9, 2018
Only one passengers reported injury: a sprained ankle. The rough landing blocked runway 19R at BKK, forcing its closure. As of Tuesday evening, the aircraft remains stuck in the mud.
Deja Vu?
You might recall a similar incident in 2013 (ironically on the same route). When that occurred, Thai Airways attempted to “cover up” the incident by painting the tail of the A330-300 black as well as Thai logo on the fuselage. No one was fooled and Thai Airways was humiliated, becoming the butt of all sorts of jokes. I don’t think Thai is going to repeat that mistake this time. Furthermore, that accident was caused by a faulty landing gear and injured 40 passengers, including 14 who had to be hospitalized.
CONCLUSION
Let’s look at the bright side. Yes, runways become more dangerous, just like roads, during bad weather. But even in the fiercest of storms, only one passenger sprained her ankle. Flying remains incredibly safe.
a few things peak my interest in this article…#1 there were only 100 passengers on a 747? why are they running such a large plane on this route? #2 I actually flew this route a few months ago & they only had 350’s on this route. even when I look that route up today, they only have 350’s…when did they start with the 747?
If you fly Thai you know that aircraft changes are more normal than getting the one which is listed!
Hopefully with one down they will do something about a replacement on the SYD service or maybe they will just drag a more ancient one from retirement.
Only 97 pax on a 747???
97 passengers and 18 crew on a 747-400? Talk about terrible aircraft utilization! But a 1:4 passenger to crew ratio must be an awesome experience!
100 passengers because they didnt sale any seats. why fly 747 and not use smaller plane? because they probably have 300 passengers return flight. why would they screw up the 747 scheduled routes?
97 passengers and 18 crew.
115 sob (souls on board)
Thai deserved the opprobrium heaped upon them after that logo paint-out farce. So too did Qantas after their crash at DMK a few years earlier: ended up on the golf course, also torrential rain /storm landing. Qantas chose to have that 747 repaired , at a cost greater than the value of the plane, in order to avoid a hull loss . They still like to ‘dine out’ on being a crash free airline ; fair enough , I guess.
@Paolo – you seem to link a lot back to Qantas… In any case, that QF1 incident you are referring to, was in 1999
Seems the plane was pretty light with 97 passengers. If it was a full flight , would the incident be worse?
This plane made it to its destination unlike the Air India plane that hit a wall and had to be diverted!
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45833239
Funny these comments about only 100 pax. As it was a return flight to BKK one must look at the outbound load. It may have gone out full.