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{{Infobox Airliner accident|name=One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269|
{{Infobox Airliner accident|name=One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269|
Crash image=One-two-go 717.JPG|Image caption=A similar One-Two-GO MD-82 at Phuket Airport|
Crash image=One-two-go 717.JPG|Image caption=A similar One-Two-GO MD-82 at Phuket Airport|

Revision as of 09:56, 7 June 2009

One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269
A similar One-Two-GO MD-82 at Phuket Airport
Accident
Date16 September 2007 (2007-09-16)
SummaryPilots' failure to go-around
SitePhuket International Airport
Aircraft typeMcDonnell Douglas MD-82
OperatorOne-Two-GO Airlines,Orient Thai Airlines
RegistrationHS-OMGdisaster
Flight originDon Mueang International Airport
DestinationPhuket International Airport
Passengers123
Crew7
Fatalities90
Survivors40
File:Thailand Phuket.png
Location of Phuket

One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269 was a scheduled flight from Bangkok's Don Mueang International Airport to Phuket International Airport in the Thai resort island of Phuket. On 16 September 2007, amid heavy rains and strong crosswinds at Phuket International Airport, after a warning from a previously landing aircraft, the pilots of OG269 failed to successfully execute a go-around, by - among other errors - failing to re-add thrust. The pilots stopped flying the aircraft 19 seconds before it struck a wooded embankment along the side of the runway. [citation needed]

The aircraft broke into two, caught fire almost immediately, and was completely destroyed. 90 people died, including 45 tourists to Thailand.

Despite significant attempts by the Thai Department of Civil Aviation and the owner of the airline Udom Tantiprasongchai to falsify information critical to the crash investigation[citation needed] , the NTSB determined the cause of the crash to be "flight crew error". The first officer was inadequately trained and inexperienced and the captain of the flight was incapacitated at the time of the crash. The airline had no safety program and both the pilot and co-pilot were exhausted due to illegally excessive work hours.

The owners and supporters of Orient Thai/One-Two-Go, including Udom Tantiprasongchai personally, and high-level personnel at the Thai Department of Civil Aviation and at the Thai Ministry of Transportation have made significant efforts since to whitewash the systemic failures in the aviation system in Thailand that resulted in this crash. As of March 2009, despite repeated promises from the Thai Department of Transportation, no crash report has been released. [citation needed]

The crash of Flight 269 is Thailand's deadliest aviation accident since Thai Airways Flight 261 crashed on approach to Surat Thani Airport in 1998, killing 101 people.

One-Two-Go is banned from flight in European Union nations due to safety concerns. [1]

Crash

The [2] McDonnell Douglas MD-82 (registration HS-OMG) departed from Bangkok's Don Mueang International Airport at 2:30 p.m. local time (0730 UTC), and was scheduled to land in Phuket at 3:50 p.m. local time (0850 UTC). After an apparent attempt by the pilot to execute a go-around moments before touchdown, the aircraft missed the runway, hit an embankment, split into two and exploded into flames.[3][4][5]The plane was carrying 123 passengers and 7 crew members.

According to Vutichai Singhamany, a safety director at Thailand's Department of Civil Aviation, the pilot had deployed the landing gear on his approach to Phuket airport runway 27, but had retracted it while trying to pull up for a go-around. Mr Singhamany added that the wheels had not touched the runway and that the accident had happened right after the pilot raised the nose of the aircraft to abort the landing.[6]It appears that the plane was caught in wind shear, causing it to sink abruptly.[7]

An aircraft that had landed four minutes before the arrival of the doomed plane had informed the air traffic controllers of wind shear and heavy downpour. This information had then been relayed to Captain Arief Mulyadi, the 56-year-old Indonesian pilot of flight 269 and Montri, the Thai First Officer. First Officer Montri was the flying pilot. Numerous errors ensued, including the failure to properly set the aircraft for a windshear go around and culminating in a situation in which neither Arief nor Montri were flying the aircraft for 15 of the final 19 seconds of flight.[8]

23-year-old Parinyawich Chusaeng, who survived the crash on flight 269, told AFP:[5]

"The plane just dropped really fast and then jerked back up. The right wing hit a tree and then the plane hit the ground. The people all around me were burning. Some on the floor and some standing, and they were on fire."

Chaisak Angsuwan, director general of the Air Transport Authority of Thailand said:[9]

"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."

A witness, William Harding, said:[10]

"The inside (of the plane) was totally on fire and about five minutes of burning, there was a small explosion that blew off top of the plane."

Canadian Survivor, Mildred Anne Furlong, said:[11]

"We started to go for the landing and [the pilot] just about hit the runway, but couldn't make it, so he lifted back up. We started to circle. I thought he was going to circle back around and try again, and then we took a sharp right and we started going for the ground."

"We bounced once and then went straight into an embankment with trees and bushes."

"It was raining really hard. We saw a couple of people who were on fire. Just a handful of us made it out. I counted 17 or 20 who had made it out on their own.".

Survivors and fatalities

Aerial view of Phuket International Airport with a One-Two-GO Airlines Boeing 747 parked by the terminal.

Of the 130 people on board, 84 passengers and 5 crew, including both pilots, died.[citation needed]. The body of pilot, Arief Mulyadi, has been identified.[12] As of 9:17 a.m. local time (0217 UTC) on September 18, 2007, 21 out of 57 bodies belonging to foreigners have also been identified. The airline contacted the rest of the victims' families for evidence to aid in identification. Some victims suffered head injuries caused by dislodged airline internals. Others were trapped and burned alive in the cabin. Many survivors sustained burns.[13]

Various embassies and ministries in Bangkok confirmed the following numbers:[14]

  • Australian embassy: 1 Australian killed and 1 survived
    (National Nine News reported at 3 P.M. on 18 September that Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer and his department felt confident that no more than 2 Australians died in the crash. So far, one has been found and identified.)
  • British embassy: 8 Britons killed and at least 2 injured.[15]
  • Canada: 1 killed and 1 injured. [16][17]
  • French foreign ministry: 3 French nationals killed, 1 injured, and 6 missing
  • German officials: At least 1 German killed - a 29-year-old man, 4 injured
  • Ireland foreign ministry: 1 Irish national killed
  • Israel media: 8 Israelis killed, 2 injured [18]
  • Swedish foreign ministry: 2 Swedes killed - a 19-year-old female and a 20-year-old male, and 2 survived with minor injuries
  • US embassy: 5 American tourists killed [19]

Three local hospitals (Bangkok-Phuket Hospital, Siriroj Hospital, and Vachira Phuket Hospital) treating the injured have released the following survivors according to their nationalities:[10]

1 Australian, 1 Austrian, 8 British, 1 Canadian, 2 Dutch, 4 German, 3 Iranian, 3 Irish, 2 Israeli, 1 Italian, 2 Swedish, 14 Thai

Aftermath

As the aircraft was manufactured in the U.S., the two flight recorders were sent to the U.S. for analysis in the same week. Similarly, the United States National Transportation Safety Board has stated its intention to assist the Thai government in the investigation[10] as the aircraft was previously registered in the U.S. and had previously flown with Trans World Airlines and American Airlines. [2][20]

Bodies recovered from the crash site were laid out at the auditorium room at the Phuket airport terminal due to the lack of refrigerators at local hospitals.[13] To speed up recovery efforts, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia would offer to send a special victim identification team.

The parent company of One-Two-Go Airlines, Orient Thai Airlines, and Thailand's national airline Thai Airways International, organised charter flights for relatives of passengers. Thai Airways International also sent a family assistance team to Phuket to help relatives deal with the horrific crash. Until the airport re-opened to traffic, relatives were flown to nearby Krabi before being sent to Phuket by bus.

According to the families of the western victims, the settlement offer of $50,000 per deceased (for college graduates in their early twenties) was "insulting" sources. Financial compensation has not been paid.

Orient Thai and One-Two-Go continued to fly illegally and dangerously after the crash of OG269. One-Two-Go was eventually grounded for excessive flight hours and checkride fraud in July 2008.[21]

Investigation

Investigators had initially focused on the pilot, saying that he had insisted on landing the plane despite being warned by air traffic controllers of severe wind shear. As of 9:01 a.m. (0201 UTC) on September 19, 2007, the focus of the investigators has shifted to Phuket International Airport's wind shear detection system. There was already an initial assumption that the wind shear detection system was not fully operational at the time of the accident. They confirmed their predictions after a check that showed the system being unresponsive to the control tower. It appears that the plane was caught in a wind shear, causing it to sink abruptly.[7]

The wind shear detection system was solar-powered, and therefore 3 out of the 6 wind shear sensors ran out of stored power during the overcast weather. [22] However, according to civil aviation officials, most aircraft are fitted with instruments that function independently from ground ones. Therefore, the pilots should not experience problems with judging the situation.

Although initially attributing wind shear, the Thai Department of Civil Aviation later found pilot error and negligence and suspended One-Two-Go from flight for 56 days.[23]

See also

Template:Wikinews3

References

  1. ^ "[1]." EU Bans Thai, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Benin Airlines From EU.
  2. ^ a b "JetPhotos.net Census info for HS-OMG". Retrieved 2007-09-17.
  3. ^ Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 2007-09-16.
  4. ^ "88 bodies, 42 survivors". Nation Multimedia. Retrieved 2007-09-16.
  5. ^ a b "Plane crashes at Thai resort airport; 88 dead". Channel Newsasia. 2007-09-16. Retrieved 2007-09-16.
  6. ^ "Thai crash officials probe system problem, foul weather". Channel Newsasia. 2007-09-19. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  7. ^ a b "Thai plane dead may take weeks to identify: police". Channel NewsAsia. 2007-09-20. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  8. ^ "Families blame lax safety for budget airline crash". London: The Times. 2008-07-20. Retrieved 2008-09-21.
  9. ^ "88 die as Thai budget airliner packed with foreign tourists crashes in Phuket". Canadian Press. 2007-09-16. Retrieved 2007-09-16.
  10. ^ a b c "88 killed in Thai plane crash". CNN. 2007-09-16. Retrieved 2007-09-16.
  11. ^ "B.C. woman escaped through window of burning plane". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 2007-09-16. Retrieved 2007-09-16.
  12. ^ "Investigators probe Phuket air disaster". Channel Newsasia. 2007-09-17. Retrieved 2007-09-17.
  13. ^ a b "'People burning all around me', says Thai air crash survivor". Channel Newsasia. 2007-09-17. Retrieved 2007-09-17.
  14. ^ "21 foreign victims of Phuket air crash identified: police". Channel Newsasia. 2007-09-18. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
  15. ^ "Thai airport wind alert 'faulty'". BBC. 2007-09-18. Retrieved 2007-09-19.
  16. ^ "Wind detection systems down during deadly Thai crash". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 2007-09-18. Retrieved 2007-09-23.
  17. ^ "Vancouver woman confirmed dead in Thai plane crash". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 2007-09-23. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  18. ^ "Seventh Phuket crash victim identified". The Jerusalem Post. 2007-09-19. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  19. ^ "Survivors recount Thai jet crash". CNN. 2007-09-18. Retrieved 2007-09-27.
  20. ^ "History of the aircraft One Two Go MD-82 HS-OMG". Retrieved 2007-09-27.
  21. ^ "'One-Two-Go Grounded". Bankgkokpost. 2008-07-22. Retrieved 2009-01-31.
  22. ^ "Israel, Iran Cooperate in Crash Probe". Associated Press. 2007-09-19. Retrieved 2007-09-19.
  23. ^ "ONE-TWO-GO AIRLINES Pilot error blamed for crash". Bangkok Post. 2008-07-21. Retrieved 2008-07-21.

8°06′51″N 98°19′05″E / 8.11417°N 98.31806°E / 8.11417; 98.31806

  1. ^ "Accident location map". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 2007-09-22. Map showing the exact location of the accident, as deduced from the description of the crash location. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |display= ignored (help)
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