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Texpat

Part of any pre-flight includes filing a flight plan. In that plan, all potential divert airfields are listed and the furthest one determines fuel load.

I also saw a lot of fire, which suggests there was a significant amount of fuel onboard.

My guess is that this retired fighter jet pilot would not feel very competent if he weather-diverted -- because another pilot landed safely just minutes before.

chinthee

Another argument which seems to gravitate towards Mid's conspiracy theories is that the corporate policy is so tough that the pilot was scared shitless not to land.

*for fear of losing his $4500/month job as head captain of the airline.

How about that?

Thetyim

Maybe he was on his mobile phone whilst landing

keda

The answer may be obvious but bear with me...I saw a report a while back that showed planes routinely ejecting excess fuel prior to landing.

Ejecting fuel may be discretionary, upon the airline or each pilot during flight, and clearly economy plays a part so that some airlines may influence a pilot (if it is his decision) to eject or not. But this would have to be balanced against the added risk of carrying excess fuel, with takeoff and landing being the most critical parts of a flight.

So, who decides to lose money by having their planes eject excess fuel, or bear the added risk of landing with excess fuel?

JohnGalt

I would tend to doubt that many planes dump fuel very often.....the bean counters would scream.

Everytime I fly from NKP to Bangkok, the jet flies in and out again without refueling. They have to land here with enough juice to make 1 hour flight time back down to BKK.

__________________
Charter Member of the Red Dot Brigade! ....

Texpat

Ummm, routinely?
No.

Mid

Bad Weather, Pilot responsibe for crash, No Indian victim reported
September 18, 2007
By News Desk

A rapid change in the speed of wind and the pilot's decision to land the plane despite bad weather seems to have led to the horrific event which took away almost 89 lives and left a lot many injured.

The officials of Embassy of India informed thaindian.com that there has not been any information regarding any Indian passengers traveling in the flight although it may take sometime before complete information can be obtained. The embassy officials are working with the airlines to find out more information and are prepared for any appropriate action, should such a situation arise.

The survivors of the crash have asked why the plane had been given permission to land despite a monsoon storm with so fierce winds. People have angrily asked why the airport remained open in such terrible weather condition and why was it not closed for any landing whatsoever.

Meanwhile, HM the King and HM the Queen have donated a total of THB 800,000 to the hospitals of Phuket for the purchase of medical supplies, medicines etc.
thaindian.com


People have angrily asked why the airport remained open in such terrible weather condition and why was it not closed for any landing whatsoever.

happy to see THE QUESTION being asked .................

__________________
"Keeping quiet while monks and other peaceful protesters are murdered and jailed is not evidence of constructive engagement." - Arvind Ganesan, Human Rights Watch.

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donmeurett

Wind shear alert was down Officials say system not crucial for landing

POST REPORTERS


Rites for the victims
Phuket airport officials attend a merit-making ceremony near the runway yesterday. Behind them is the covered wreckage of the ill-fated One-Two-Go airliner, which has been moved from the actual accident site further up the runway. Systems to detect dangerous winds at Phuket international airport have emerged as a new factor possibly linked to the horrendous crash of the One-Two-Go flight on Sunday.
Wuttichai Singmanee, director of air safety at the Civil Aviation Department, said three of the six wind shear alert systems at the airport had problems.
''Three out of six low-level wind shear alert systems were not working at the time,'' Mr Wuttichai said in a report by the AP.
An official at Phuket airport who declined to be named told the Bangkok Post that the system run by the Meteorological Department had not functioned for months.
The systems detect sudden strong winds, also known as wind shear, which could cause trouble for a plane landing at the airport.
Officials responsible for the system would normally alert air traffic controllers to warn pilots about the situation on the ground.
These systems are installed at all international airports in Thailand. They are located in areas around the airport.
With investigators still trying to determine the cause of the tragedy, it was unclear yesterday whether the accident, which left 89 people dead and 41 injured, was due to pilot error or weather conditions.
But Mr Wuttichai said even though the wind shear detection system was not fully functional, this would not necessarily lead to an accident.
The airport at Phuket was also equipped with its own, separate wind detecting system and could inform incoming and outgoing planes of the situation, the official said.
''The wind shear alert system is not a requirement for an international aviation standard,'' he said.
A pilot of Thai Airways International (THAI), who asked not to be named, agreed with Mr Wuttichai, saying the wind shear detection system was not crucial for landing or take-off.
Most passenger aircraft nowadays were equipped with their own wind detection equipment, which the pilot could refer to, he said.
Transport permanent secretary Chaisawat Kittipornpaiboon, who is heading the inquiry into the disaster, said wind shear had not been ruled out and it had been the cause of several major airline accidents.
Transport and aviation authorities yesterday appealed to the public not to point the finger at Arief Mulyadi, the chief pilot on the fatal flight.
Chaisak Ungsuwan, director-general of the Civil Aviation Department, said no judgement should be passed before the information on the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder had been analysed.
The recorders, which were retrieved from the wreckage of the plane, were being sent to the United States for analysis, he said. The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 was made in the US.
''I do not want to see any blame heaped on the pilot or any other party involved because it is not fair. We should wait for the results of the examination of the data recorders,'' said Mr Chaisak.
Khajit Hapnanont, chief executive officer of One-Two-Go Airlines, echoed the appeal. He insisted the airline's safety was not lax and that Mr Mulyadi was one of the company's best.
Mr Chaisak, quoting a recorded conversation between the pilot and the flight tower, said flight OG 269 requested landing permission and inquired about weather and wind speed about four minutes after an aircraft owned by Orient Thai Airlines, which owns One-Two-Go, landed safely.
He said flight OG 269 also acknowledged that wind shear had been reported by the other plane before asking for landing approval.
Khanit Promsathit, a THAI pilot, said Phuket airport is a difficult place to land especially at night or in bad weather.
Two critically injured passengers were yesterday flown to a hospital in Bangkok for intensive burn treatment.
Phuket public health office chief Wanchai Sattayawuthiwong said Chainarong Maharae, 38, chief of Bang Muang tambon administration organisation in Phangnga and Ms Bethan Jones, 22, a Briton, sustained 40-60% burns and were transferred to a Bangkok hospital.
Pol Col Pornprasert Kanjanarin, deputy chief of the Foreign Affairs Division, said 36 bodies of Thai victims had been claimed by relatives.
Forensic officials had identified 20 out of the 53 foreigners killed.

watterinja

Anyone competent out there, hello?

The Gentleman Scamp

Is Phuket cursed?

Marmite the Dog

Amazing Thailand!

Thormaturge

Now let's see. Dead pilot, live air traffic controller.....

Which one can't answer back?

Which one will get the blame?

chinthee

^ You forgot to say "dead INDONESIAN" pilot.

Mid

Thai crash investigators say alerts not all working
19 September

PHUKET, Thailand - Thai officials pored over evidence Wednesday trying to piece together what led a plane to crash killing 89 people, as it emerged that systems to detect dangerous winds were not fully working.

Forensic police edged closer to identifying the dead, of whom up to 57 were foreigners, as officials studied whether human error, foul weather or airport malfunctions — or a combination — caused Sunday’s crash.

Vutichai Singhamany, a safety director at the Department of Aviation, told AFP the pilot had put the landing gear down on approach to Phuket airport, but retracted it and tried to pull up.

“The wheels did not touch the runway,” Vutichai told AFP. “Then the plane tried to pull up and the accident happened.”

Vutichai confirmed that three of six systems designed to detect a dangerous weather phenomenon known as wind shear were not working when the passenger jet crashed, but said that may not have caused the tragedy.

“Aircraft are equipped with their own warning systems, which do not depend on the ground ones,” he told AFP.
khaleejtimes.com

Mid

meanwhile Mr Sun adds to the confusion ...................





Thai crash investigators, looking for clues into the cause of a plane crash on Phuket, have discovered wind detection systems on the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 plane were not working properly.

The plane, operated by budget carrier One-Two-Go, slammed onto the runway in heavy rain before ploughing into an embankment and breaking up in flames.

The Department of Aviation investigators say the pilot had put the landing gear down on approach to Phuket airport, but retracted it and tried to pull up.

When the pilot pulled back on the throttle, the accident happened.

Investigators say three of six systems designed to detect a dangerous weather phenomenon known as wind shear were not working when the passenger jet crashed, killing 89 people.

Forensic workers in Thailand are getting closer to identifying the dead while grieving relatives await the results of the investigation into the disaster on the popular holiday island.

malaysiasun.com

blackgang

Yea, them dudes have lost a lot of folks lives and a lot of planes in the last year, I would not fly if I knew that any SE ASIAN was on the stick with me in the plane..

Marmite the Dog

Someone's fucked up. I thought that 3 of the 6 six wind detectors on the ground weren't working? That's what was previously reported.

dirtydog

So wind sheer detectors are not important in airports because most planes have their own, well apart from the planes that don't have them and the planes with ones that don't work, seems to me that these wind sheer machines at airports sound quite important and may have saved 80 odd lives.

__________________

Mid

^^


meanwhile Mr Sun adds to the confusion ...................