Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Bangkok Airway ATR72 from Krabi to Koh Samui, July 2005

1. this ATR propeller jet took me from Krabi to Koh Samui on a 45 minute ride. Some people claimed propeller jet is even safer but it turned out this ATR72 has a defrost problem on the wing spans, when it reaches to an altitude of 10,000 to 15,000 feet. Today's news about this segment flight is pretty sad. It crashed into a building of Samui airport on a severe rainy condition. In fact, during the monsoon season in the southern part of Thailand, it's sometimes quite risky for the jets taking off and landing. In July 2004, I took a 310 Air Asia flight from BKK to Phuket, the plane went thru' a severe thunderstorm and it was really bumpy. The pilot tried 3 times in landing. When we almost got to see the hills of Phuket, the pilot decided to go up. The pilot announced if the fourth time failed, we would go to Krabi for a temporary landing. The good thing is that the pilot took a narrow winding path in the landing and made it! It really depends on the pilot's skill.
2. the wing of ATR72.

3. Surprisingly found this photo. On the right u-turn corner, it's where the Sarann is now. I could see how Sarann was built on a reclaimed land on that rocky area. Besides, there weren't many hotel resorts on Chaweng Noi (the right part), and even on the lower end of Chaweng (the middle to right).

2 comments:

Paranoid Android said...

Yes. Cross winds during the monsoon can be scary, and while flying through air pockets, the planes an actually plunge down 5 metres!

in the sea said...

Yes, I had that experience for about 4-5 times. There was one time on my CX723 flight from HKG to KUL. My orange juice was spilled all over the seats around me and even to the window shield. The pilot told the crew to get a seat nearby. Then another one was on a Japan Asia flight to Taipei. There was a typhoon in Taiwan. I could even see the cloud belt and we flew in. The air-stewardess was suddenly up in the air almost hitting the ceiling. It was like a fallen roller coaster.