Thai Airways safety log may destroy airline and tourism industry

Imagine the national carrier and other airlines registered in Thailand were no longer allowed to fly to Europe, Japan or North America due to safety concerns.

Imagine the national carrier and other airlines registered in Thailand were no longer allowed to fly to Europe, Japan or North America due to safety concerns. Thai Airways is a member of the Star Alliance. What would it do not only to the reputation of this airline, but to all Star Alliance airlines? It will ruin the reputation of all airlines in Thailand, including an airline with big plans – Bangkok Air.

eTurboNews reached out to Thai Airways International for a response, but no comments were received.

eTN has learned consulting company AVCON Worldwide had warned the President of Thai Airways International on September 2013 in regards to evidence collected enough to downgrade the safety record for Star Alliance Airline Thai Airways from CAT1 to CAT 2.

CAT 2 would mean Thai would no longer be allowed to fly to North America or the European Union or Japan due to safety concerns.

The first letter by AVCON Worldwide was sent on September 20, 2013 to Mr. Sorajak Kasemuvan, president of Thai Airways in Bangkok and warned about the danger listing issues.

One of the allegation:

The Thai CIvil Aviation Authority allowed two Airbus 340-300 of Chabe Airlines (trading name of SIam Global Air) to depart Bangkok DMK Airport without legitimate registration marking. They had HS-CHA and HS-CHB marking respectively, but they were never entered in the official Thai registrat. Thiose aircraft ended up in Iran Maham Air via Kyrgyzstan. Documents provided showed the transfer from Lufthansa to Chaba Airlines to Manas Airways and finally Mahan Airlines.

The author, AVCON WorldWide in London, claimed to have evidence and photographs.

Secondly AVCON’s engineer complied missing log files, missing component tags, mismatches of serial numbers in the records and actual serial numbers of components ๏ฟผinstalled in HS-TLD.

The list contained over 200 items of such cases and was growing untill the date AVCON stopped working because HS-TLD’s C4 check was stopped at 80% completion and parked outside hanger.

The letter stated AVCON can’t imagine the true level of such cases on 3 other A340-SOO’s as well as the entire THAI fleet. A huge safety issue could be the result.

A similar warning letter was sent to Ms Yingluck Shinawatra The Prime Minister of Thailand on October 19,2013.

On April 15, 2015 a follow up letter was sent to HE Prayut Chan-o-cha Prime Minister of Thailand, saying it seems like Thai Airways International had no intention to resolve the issue and was ignoring e mails.

The letter went on: “We believe it is our duty to inform you as the release of log discrepancy records to ICAO, FAA, EASA and other civil aviation bodies may cause a heavy impact on the Thai tourism industry and the national interest of Thailand and its government.

A second letter to the Prime Minister and to Thai Airways lists four suggestions to address serious safety concerns.

This story is only reflecting the one side of an airline consulting company AVCON. Until Thai, Bangkok Air, the Thai Government is responding to this situation.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

Share to...