Trang Airport closed after Nok Air flight slides off runway; passengers safe
Play
LOW-COST AIRLINE flights from Trang Airport were cancelled yesterday and many passengers had their tickets refunded, after a Bangkok-bound Nok Air flight slid off the runway while preparing for takeoff in heavy rain late on Tuesday afternoon.
All 142 passengers on Flight DD7411, many of them foreign tourists, and the crew, were uninjured.
Trang Airport was closed yesterday as officials prepared buses to move some 100 passengers to another Nok Air DD7401 Flight bound for Don Mueang from Nakhon Si Thammarat Airport.
Another 100 passengers on Air |Asia Flight FD3242 (Trang to Don Mueang) were taken to Krabi Airport. Many passengers, including singer Weerayut “Baowee Rsiam” Nancha, were refunded their tickets or changed travel dates.
The runway-clearing mission was awaiting the arrival of experts and equipment from Bangkok at midnight to help move the crashed plane, which is stuck in mud, Trang Airport director Thaworn Saeng-ampai said.
He said on Tuesday night that |Nok Air had secured a large crane from Hat Yai Airport to move the Boeing 737-800. But the operation failed because the plane’s heavy wheels were stuck deep in mud and they had to |wait for experts and tools from Bangkok. He couldn’t tell how long it would take to get the plane back on the runway, but expected it to be done by today.
Initial inspection found no damage to the plane, he said, and the committee assigned by the Department of Civil Aviation would later determine the cause of the incident.
In May, the left wheel of the nose undercarriage of another Nok Air flight, DD 8714, fell off as the plane landed at Mae Fah Luang Airport in Chiang Rai. All 162 passengers and crew were safe because the right wheel was able to hold the weight of the Boeing 738 and prevent the fuselage from hitting the runway.
