TG A330 skids off runway in BKK

[MAN Flyer]

14 hurt but thankfully no fatalities.

A Thai Airways plane has skidded off the runway while landing at Bangkok's main international airport, injuring 14 people.

The Airbus A330-300 was arriving from Guangzhou in China into Suvarnabhumi Airport when the incident occurred.

Thai Airways said the landing gear malfunctioned, causing the aircraft to skid. Passengers were evacuated using emergency slides.

An investigation into Sunday night's incident had begun, the airline said.

"The nose gear failed as the plane touched the runway, causing the plane to skid," the airline said in a statement.

"Sparks were noticed from the vicinity of the right landing gear near the engine; the matter is under investigation."

A total of 288 passengers and 14 crew were on the plane, the airline said. The 14 injured passengers were taken to hospital.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24012344

[MAN Flyer]

Just noticed the name 'Thai' and the logo on the plane has been blacked out on that pic on the BBC website. Is that supposed to make people think it's not a TG aircraft ?.

[CarbonMan]

Just noticed the name 'Thai' and the logo on the plane has been blacked out on that pic on the BBC website. Is that supposed to make people think it's not a TG aircraft ?.

Strange. That photo is actually credited to Reuters. Why would Reuters photoshop it out.

Just checked the Guardian and they are showing the same angle but different photo by an AP photojournalist. Therefore it is unlikely (?) that it was photoshopped.



On the other hand, I can't imagine TG rushing their maintenance crew out on to the field to purposefully paint over their logo and name.

Which leaves the only rational answer - it was already painted over before the crash?

UPDATE: TG DID SEND WORKERS TO PAINT OUT THE LOGO! I'll be ...

[kapitan]

Strange. That photo is actually credited to Reuters. Why would Reuters photoshop it out.

Just checked the Guardian and they are showing the same angle but different photo by an AP photojournalist. Therefore it is unlikely (?) that it was photoshopped.



On the other hand, I can't imagine TG rushing their maintenance crew out on to the field to purposefully paint over their logo and name.

Which leaves the only rational answer - it was already painted over before the crash?

UPDATE: TG DID SEND WORKERS TO PAINT OUT THE LOGO! I'll be ...

Bangkok Post picture showed crew on a cherry picker crane covering the logo.... maybe its some religious believe...

[sqdazz]

It's not unusual for airlines to remove logos from downed aircraft when in such public areas where thousands of passengers are going by every day

[RCTP]

A friend of mine posted a photo without the logo "blackened"..

[MAN Flyer]

It's not unusual for airlines to remove logos from downed aircraft when in such public areas where thousands of passengers are going by every day

Indeed. It happens all the time for aircraft in storage as well, but this seems to have been done within a few hours of the accident and while still in situ. Do they have a crack team of logo covering commandos on 24 hour stand-by at Suvarnabhumi ?

You'd think the priority would be to move it first....

[lfc]

From the guardian

"A Thai Airways official, Smud Poom-on, said that blurring the logo after an accident was a recommendation from Star Alliance known as the "crisis communication rule", meant to protect the image of both the airline and other members of Star Alliance."

Not sure how much it can protect with surely dozen of planes with the same paint scheme lining up in the home base visible to anyone who passed by.

[nykelaz]

From the guardian

"A Thai Airways official, Smud Poom-on, said that blurring the logo after an accident was a recommendation from Star Alliance known as the "crisis communication rule", meant to protect the image of both the airline and other members of Star Alliance."

Not sure how much it can protect with surely dozen of planes with the same paint scheme lining up in the home base visible to anyone who passed by.

http://www.airdisaster.com/photos/ci642/photo.shtml

[reddevil0728]

After the accident, workers on a crane painted over the Thai Airways logo on the tail and body of the aircraft in black.

Known as the "crisis communication rule," the practice of obscuring logos was a recommendation from Star Alliance -- of which Thai Airways is a member -- to protect the airline's image, an airline official initially said.

However, Star Alliance denied the claims.

"The Star Alliance crisis communications policy does not state that logos are to covered," in the event of an accident, a spokesman for the airline group, Markus Ruediger, told CNN.

Thai Airways later issued a statement "clarifying" its policy.

"Though Thai generally practices the de-identifying of an aircraft after an incident ... the company also clarifies that this is not a Star Alliance policy."

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/09/tr...?sr=fbmainintl

[MAN Flyer]

Their bizarre desperation of wanting to cover the logos up before doing almost anything else seems to have made it to a number of bemused news organisations around the world.

Let's be honest though, this sort of nonsense is one of the reasons some of us are so fond of them.

[Kyo]

Let's be honest though, this sort of nonsense is one of the reasons some of us are so fond of them.

Well, they've got a new head, don't they? He's eager to make his mark

[viraj735]

Decided to help TG out a bit with the cover up.

[sqdazz]

Decided to help TG out a bit with the cover up.

You've got too much time on your hands

[MAN Flyer]

You've got too much time on your hands

I bet it took him twice as long to do that as it took TG to cover those logos.

I heard they asked some of the pax using the slides to help out.