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Family Of 1998 Thai Air Crash In Surat Thani Sues Airbus


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Airbus Sued for 1998 Thai Crash

Associated Press 06.29.07, 3:00 PM ET

The family of a Thai politician who died in a 1998 Thai Airways crash filed suit Friday against the plane's maker, Airbus, claiming design and manufacturing flaws caused the crash.

The family of Tawat Wichaidit is asking Bangkok Civil Court to award them compensation and damages of 99.43 million baht ($3.13 million) for negligence, lost income and mental stress, said their lawyer, Rujira Bunnag.

The court will have a hearing on November 12, 2007, to rule on whether to accept the case for trial.

A total of 101 people were killed when the Airbus A310-200 crashed near the airport in Surat Thani, 330 miles south of Bangkok, on Dec. 11, 1998. Forty-five people survived.

The lawsuit filed against Airbus S.A.S., the pan-European airline manufacturer, claims that the plane involved was designed and manufactured "without the exercise of perception and carefulness as should (be) expected."

"It could lead the airplane into a stall condition in some situations, and if by chance there was the fault of the electrical system occurring at that time, then it would cause the airplane to crash," it said.

A spokeswoman in France for Airbus, Marie Caujolle, said in response to reports of the lawsuit that "The accident has been thoroughly investigated by the Thai authorities as well as the French Accident Investigation Bureau and the American NTSB, as per ICAO recommendations.

"We have nothing to add to this exhaustive report, which was published several years ago, and will not comment further." NTSB stands for the National Transportation Safety Board, the U.S. agency which investigates air accidents, and ICAO is the Montreal, Canada-based International Civil Aviation Organization.

The Thai government has never publicized any official findings it may have made about the cause of the crash.

The flight from Bangkok crashed in a swamp when making its third approach after two aborted landing attempts in heavy evening rain. In addition to Thai passengers, citizens of the United States, Austria, Britain, Finland, Germany, Japan and Norway also died in the crash.

About a year later, Thai aviation officials said equipment had malfunctioned on the plane, contributing to the accident. However, an Airbus spokesman said at the time that the panel of inquiry had not informed the company of any fault with the aircraft.

Other possible explanations for the crash have also been leaked to the press, including pilot error.

Forbes.com

One of my neighbors died on this flight, it was quite shocking for everyone when it happened, put quite a few locals off flying for quite some time.

Seems odd to me now, I guess I just don't understand why this family waited 9 years before suing.

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  • 3 weeks later...
The rumour I heard was that an 'influential person' ordered the pilot to land when he was going to divert to another airport.

The rumour was that it was a politician who demanded that the plane land and he pulled out a pistol in the cockpit to help with his argument. The pilot had aborted twice and announced that he was returning to Phuket.

I remember watching the survivors coming out of the swamp live on Itv. I haven't flown THAI since then, nor will I ever again.

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The rumour I heard was that an 'influential person' ordered the pilot to land when he was going to divert to another airport.

The rumour was that it was a politician who demanded that the plane land and he pulled out a pistol in the cockpit to help with his argument. The pilot had aborted twice and announced that he was returning to Phuket.

I remember watching the survivors coming out of the swamp live on Itv. I haven't flown THAI since then, nor will I ever again.

So, this suing process is yet another case of finding a falang scapegoat and extort as much money as possible ...

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from an flying related forum (pprune)

Over FIVE YEARS later.......and??

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11 Dec 1998 ( over 5 years ago) A310-200 of Thai Airways International crashes on its third go-round on a non-precision approach in poor visibility from a steep very nose-high attitude killing 101 of the 146 pax and crew. The ILS was out of service at the time due to works in progress.

I had heard rumours that a high-ranking Thai politician had "invaded" the cockpit to insist that the pilot land and there was speculation that the known use of onboard mobile phones may have affected the aircraft's flight instrumentation. This latter idea may not be that far off base considering that two 747-400 incidents (SIA and QF) had inexplicable losses of PFD's across the cockpit in the last two years.

Anybody have any aeromed / physiological explanation for such a gross pitchup (stab? runaway trim?). Pilot incapacitation? Struggle in the cockpit?

But over five years later and Airbus/French BEA and the Thai authorities are no closer to delivering a Report? What did the CVR and DFDR disclose? What about the Abidjan A310 accident? What is the bottom line there? Aviation regulators seem to be able to mark time on investigations where the manufacturer doesn't want any notoriety or disclosure of proprietary safety matters.

Opinions......?

I stand corrected. The BEA Abidjan Report (in French only) is here - in a large download pdf file

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