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Thai Airways Flight 231

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Thai Airways Flight 231
A Hawker Siddeley HS 748 like the one that crashed
Accident
Date27 April 1980
SummaryPilot error in thunderstorm
Site15 km north east of Bangkok, Thailand
Aircraft
Aircraft typeHawker Siddeley HS 748
OperatorThai Airways
RegistrationHS-THB
Flight originKhon Kaen Airport, Thailand
DestinationDon Mueang International Airport, Bangkok, Thailand
Passengers49
Crew4
Fatalities44
Injuries9
Survivors9

Thai Airways Flight 231 crashed on 27 April 1980. The Hawker Siddeley HS 748, registration HS-THB, stalled and crashed after entering a thunderstorm on apporach to Bangkok. The accident killed 44 out of 53 passengers and crew on board Flight 231.

Accident

Thai Airways Flight 231 took off from Khon Kaen Airport headed to Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand. After about 40 minutes Flight 231 was on approach to the airport and planned to land on runway 21R. It entered an area of rain which turned out to be a severe thunderstorm at 1500 feet. About a minute after entering the storm a downdraft struck the plane which caused the nose to go up and the plane to stall. The aircraft then went into a nose dive which the pilot tried to pull the aircraft out of. The Hawker then slightly banked to the right and was almost out of the dive when the aircraft crashed into the ground. The wreck of Hawker Siddeley HS 748 then slid for 510 feet and broke up at 06:55. The accident killed 44 of the passengers and crew, 9 people were injured in the crash.

Cause

The pilot directed the aircraft into a thunderstorm in an early dissipating stage. The aircraft was severely affected by a downdraft and lost altitude rapidly. At that time the altitude of the aircraft was only 1500ft and the pilot could not maintain altitude of the aircraft. The aircraft crashed into the ground and ran forward. Factors which caused the pilot to direct the aircraft into the thunderstorm were: 1. During flight prior to the accident, the pilot did not tune his radio to the ATIS frequency, so he did not receive the special weather report (SPECI) broadcast four minutes before the accident advising that there was a thunderstorm in the area he would soon encounter.

2. The pilot did not make use of airborne weather radar.

3. While the pilot was approaching at high altitude, he could see the thunderstorm, but it was not in his flight path to Bangkok International Airport. When the pilot was descending in compliance with Bangkok Approach Control instruction, he was not aware that the rain area which he was entering was a thunderstorm which was moving and developing severely. The thunderstorm which had developed to the severe stage was moving and intercepted the aircraft.

4. The pilot assumed that flying by radar vector would be safe as he thought that the Approach Control Radar could detect the thunderstorm and Bangkok Approach Control would not vector the aircraft into the thunderstorm." Thai Accident Investigation Committee

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