BREAKING NEWS: Thai airliner down in Phuket

The Australian

PHUKET crash pilot Arief Mulyadi, who was buried in Jakarta yesterday, flew jet fighters during Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor in a decisive moment in the brutal suppression of the Fretilin resistance.

After graduating from military college in 1974, Lieutenant Colonel Mulyadi was sent to the former Portuguese colony in 1977 with a squadron of attack and surveillance AV-10 Bronco jets, family and friends revealed yesterday.

For two years after the December 1975 invasion by Indonesian navy and air force, known as Operation Seroja (Lotus), there had been a spirited armed opposition, often operating from dense bushland.

However Mulyadi’s Broncos – specialist counter-insurgency craft bought from the US especially for the purpose – bombed vast amounts of bush and cropland, as well as dropping leaflets on large parts of the countryside urging surrender.

It was an action that helped to turn the battle Indonesia’s way by 1978.

During yesterday’s service, chief eulogist Air Vice Marshal Eko Edi Santoso remembered Mulyadi as dedicated and disciplined.

“He was my best friend,” a tearful Air Vice Marshal Santoso, one of the Indonesian military’s most senior figures, told the small gathering of mostly friends and family, with a few serving personnel scattered among the mourners.

Mulyadi’s son, Agung Bayu Hanggono, 29, revealed that his father had requested permission on Sunday to return to Bangkok on approach to the Phuket runway, because of the atrocious weather.

Mr Agung, who said he had been told this by sources within budget airline One-Two-Go, also revealed there was a possibility his father had tried to help other passengers before collapsing.

Mulyadi, who went on to captain Jakarta-based Hercules transport planes before becoming a flight instructor and then leaving the military in 1993 for life as a commercial pilot, lived in the Thai capital with his wife, Lies Farikha.

He had planned to retire to Jakarta next year to spend more time with his two grandchildren.

Mr Agung said his last communication with his father, who died in hospital, was on Saturday by SMS.

“His last message was to look after my children – his grandchildren,” he said.

After listening to an Australian survivor on the news who said they were just about to touch down when the engines spooled up and the aircraft accelerated to go around but was immediately slammed downwards onto the runway very hard…it does sound like windshear

This is a real tragedy, and, i think, i may have been granted a pardon, as i am in Asia just now (in Taipei at the minute), i reversed the order of my various trips, and was originally planning to be on OG269 on sunday, but, will now be flying the route in 10 days. Had several texts from back home asking if i was ok!!(at the time i had’nt heard about the tragedy) Guess someone is looking out for me!,I was in the departure lounge at Kinmen in Taiwan earlier today, and the TV news was showing footage and detailed analysis of the crash on a news channel repeatedly! Not the kind of TV i feel folks about to board a plane want to see?!?, from what i could understand they think it was a “micro storm” a very sudden and strong wind shear.

I really do wonder what prompted the pilot to try to land after circuiling around the airport a few times and knowing that conditions were not good.

Either poor quality training or lack of training…why did the Garuda pilot land so fast a few months back??

Absolutely sad scenes. I really do wonder what prompted the pilot to try to land after circuiling around the airport a few times and knowing that conditions were not good. I wonder if LCC’s pressurize pilots to take some risks in order to maintain a fast turn around and on performance chart? Because apparentlky the flight that landed before this aircraft made it clear to the ATC that conditions were not favourable?

R.I.P to the lost.

RIP

Important telephone numbers:

One-Two-Go Hotline 1126

Bangkok Phuket Hospital 076-254421-9

Siriroj Hospital 076-249400

Vajira Phuket Hospital 076-361234

Mission Phuket Hospital 076-237220-9

Thalang Hospital 076-311033

British Embassy’s emergency centre 02-3058333

Phuket Airport 076-351-144, 076-351166

LIST OF 123 PASSENGERS ON BOARD ONE-TWO-GO FLIGHT OG 269

Given the short time frame since the crash it is not appropriate to post a passenger list when some passengers next of kins may not have been informed. Andrewm

PHUKET CRASH TOLL RISES TO 90

Bangkok Post
A One-Two-Go Airlines passenger jet with 130 people aboard crashed and burned while landing at Phuket Airport in foul weather Sunday afternoon. The death toll rose to 90 on Monday with confirmation that both the pilot and co-pilot died.

There were at least 42 survivors, including 11 Thais, six Irish nationals, six Britons, three Australians, three Iranians, two Swedes, one German and a Dutch national. They were admitted to various Phuket hospitals.

“Five are in critical condition. Some have burns to 60 percent of their body,” Bangkok Phuket hospital coordinator Piyannooch Anantakdee told the Reuters news agency.

The pilot and co-pilot were said to be among the survivors, leading to a statement by Phuket deputy governor Vorapot Rajsima that 88 people were confirmed dead. On Monday, the airline said both cockpit crew had died along with most of the passengers in the front part of the MD-82, a twin-engined jet evolution of the popular DC9 workhorse.

“Nearly half the passengers were foreign tourists,” said one survivor, Nong Khaonuan. In a TV interview, he said. “I’ve flown on many airplanes before and I can say there was something strange about our landing. We seemed to drop down too fast.”

There was hope that many survived after TiTV showed two foreigners being carried away to local hospital. But the fire that ripped through the crashed aircraft apparently claimed dozens of lives.

The MD82 plane of the budget airline skidded off the runway after landing on a flight from Don Muang airport in Bangkok, and crashed into trees, bursting into fire.

“The fire was throughout the airplane,” said Phuket Deputy Governor Worraphot Ratsrimaa. “We expect that at least 90 per cent of the passengers died.”

“The plane was landing and slid off the runway. We are rescuing people and carrying injured people to hospitals,” said Pol Lt Sokchai Limcharoen, a police officer in the area in an early report.

Chaisak Angsuwan, director general of the Air Transport Authority of Thailand said the aircraft broke in two as it attempted to land at Phuket airport in bad weather.

Chaisak said that there was heavy rain when flight OG269 of parent Orient Thai Airways traveling from Bangkok’s Don Muang airport to Phuket attempted to make a landing. Planes in both Orient Thai and One-Two-Go livery use the OG flight identifier.

“The visibility was poor as the pilot attempted to land. He decided to make a go-around but the plane lost balance and crashed,”. he said. “The plane then fell onto the runway and broke into two. It is expected that there will be deaths.

“The airplane asked to land but due to the weather in Phuket -strong wind and heavy rain -maybe the pilot did not see the runway clearly,” said Chaisak.

Witnesses said the airline was using its usual MD-82 twin-engine passenger jet aircraft, a model of the McDonnell-Douglas DC9. One-Two-Go owned seven such planes, which it used for frequent flights around Thailand, including six each day from Bangkok to Phuket and return.

Airport officials and rescue workers are still working to help the victims from the plane which caught fire after it crashlanded and skidded off the runway.

Authorities said there were 123 passengers and five crew members on board when the plane crashed at about 3:35pm Sunday afternoon.

Weather in Phuket has been bad for several days, with thunderstorms and high wind gusts at times.

Source:Aviation-safety-net

Status: Preliminary
Date: 16 SEP 2007
Time: ca 16:00
Type: McDonnell Douglas MD-82
Operator: One-Two-Go Airlines
Crew: Fatalities: / Occupants: 7
Passengers: Fatalities: / Occupants: 123
Total: Fatalities: 88 / Occupants: 130
Airplane damage: Written off
Location: Phuket International Airport (HKT) ( Thailand )
Phase: Landing
Nature: Domestic Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport: Bangkok-Don Muang International Airport (DMK/VTBD), Thailand
Destination airport: Phuket International Airport (HKT/VTSP), Thailand
Flightnumber: 269
Narrative:
One-Two-Go Flight 269 departed Bangkok-Don Muang (DMK) at about 14:30 for a domestic service to Phuket (HKT). It was raining at Phuket when the MD-82 approached the airport. Wind was from the West at 12 knots.
On landing the airplane went off the side of the runway, crashed into trees and caught fire.
Weather around the time of the accident (ca 09:00 Z) was: VTSP 160900Z 27012KT 1000 RA SCT015 BKN110 BKN300 24/23 Q1006 2973.
Sources:
» The Nation
——————————————–
AIRCRAFT PROFILE MCDONNELL DOUGLAS MD-80
* Last fatal hull-loss accident: 16 AUG 2005 HK-4374X of West Caribbean Airways, near Machiques, Venezuela- 160 fatalities
* Total number of hull-losses: 22 (19 accidents, 3 other occurrences (destroyed on the ground )), of which 12 losses were fatal
* 6th worst accident
——————————————–
AIRPORT PROFILE PHUKET
* ICAO/IATA designators: HKT / VTSP
* Latitude: 08° 06′ 47.52″ N / 029° 14′ 18.47″ E
* Elevation: 82 ft/ 25 m
* Runway: 09/27 (9843 x 148 feet, asphalt, ILS)
* Third hull-loss accident of an airliner at or near Phuket Airport
——————————————–
OPERATOR PROFILE ONE-TWO-GO
Thai low-cost carrier operating out of Bangkok since 2003. It is wholly owned by Orient Thai Airlines.
* First hull-loss accident
——————————————–
COUNTRY PROFILE THAILAND
* Last fatal airliner hull-loss accident: 03 MAR 2001 Boeing 737-4D7 HS-TDC of Thai Airways International, Bangkok International Airport – 1 fatality
* 3rd worst accident in Thailand
* The country is rated Cat. 1 (meeting ICAO standards) in FAA’s International Aviation Safety Assessment Program (IASA)
——————————————–

Forgive me if this sounds selfish, but how long is the airport likely to remain closed? Obviously, tourism in Thailand is huge, so I suspect that things will be back to near-normal within a few days. I ask as I am due to fly into Phuket myself with Thai Airways on Thursday morning.

The below link has been updated in the last hour.

Brits Killed In Tourist Plane Disaster
Updated: 20:47, Sunday September 16, 2007

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1284313,00.html

RickT

BBC saying 87 dead out of 123 passengers – most of them foreigners including Brits 🙁 – and seven crew.

Needs updating I think.

Sky News reporting 90% of passengers dead.

R.I.P.

Some bits from http://www.bangkokpost.net/topstories/topstories.php?id=121720

Initial reports estimated that at least 60 passengers died in the fiery accident.

[…]

The visibility was poor as the pilot attempted to land. He decided to make a go-around but the plane lost balance and crashed. It was torn into two parts,” he said.

[…]

Authorities said there were 123 passengers and five crew members on board when the plane crashed at about 4pm Sunday afternoon.

Scheduled departure time from Bangkok (Don Muang, not Suvarnabhumi) was 2:30pm, arriving in Phuket at 3:50pm. The aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas MD-82.

I hope this is not at serious as it sounds and pray that the damage is limited to injuries only.

It seems it was flight OG269 of Orient Thai Airlines.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/16/asia/AS-GEN-Thailand-Plane-crash.php

CNN is reporting the flight as being Orient Thai AirlinesOG269 from Bangkok to Phuket. Flight number is probably wrong, as the Orient Thai IATA code is actually OX. OG belongs to Air Guadeloupe.

The plane broke in two upon landing. As yet no details on casualties or injuries.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/16/thailand.crash.ap/index.html

Orient Thai has a fleet of 747s (10), 757s (2) and MD-88s (4). Fleetdetails from RZjets.net