Today the A380 I was on made two aborted approaches to BKK in fog and then diverted and landed in similar conditions at Don Muang. Am confident one of our resident avgeeks can tell me why this is the case. I suspect that the equipment is different but would have thought that BKK would have right kit. It was only the A380 as all other flights managed okay.
Once at Don Muang faced with a delay for refueling and flight plan submission etc I would have thought it might be easier to offload the passengers and luggage and bus those that needed it to swampy. As it happened a four hour delay before taking off ensued not helped by a generator failure which apart from leaving the plane without air con for over an hour also meant rebooting the avionics.
From safety standpoint there is no argument about the decisions but as Don Muang is an international airport I don’t see why offloading the passengers was not done. Bussing them to Swampy would not be difficult and in addition to reducing the delay it would have reduced the workload on the crew and fuel consumption. This was an Emirates flight and I guess they don’t have a service agreement with Don Muang but Thailand is usually very accommodating and I find all this a bit strange.
Am sure there is a logical or legal reason for all this and interested to hear from those who know. Also am sure the mods will place this in the appropriate section.
A380 can land in fog at DMK but not BKK
Re: A380 can land in fog at DMK but not BKK
That is a bit strange!
I repair large aircraft and have never been a pilot, so can’t give you an answer but there are a few things that come to mind.
An A380 is obviously a very large aircraft which means at landing attitude, the cockpit is so high up that it’s more difficult for the pilot to commit to an automatic landing if he can’t see the runway lights to know that he is on the centreline of the runway.
It’s possible that Don Muaeng had slightly better visibility conditions at that time which made it a better option.
It’s also possible that Don Muaeng, being a military facility, might have a different approach system but I’ve no idea if that is the case.
I repair large aircraft and have never been a pilot, so can’t give you an answer but there are a few things that come to mind.
An A380 is obviously a very large aircraft which means at landing attitude, the cockpit is so high up that it’s more difficult for the pilot to commit to an automatic landing if he can’t see the runway lights to know that he is on the centreline of the runway.
It’s possible that Don Muaeng had slightly better visibility conditions at that time which made it a better option.
It’s also possible that Don Muaeng, being a military facility, might have a different approach system but I’ve no idea if that is the case.
Re: A380 can land in fog at DMK but not BKK
Thai Enquirer
@ThaiEnquirer
An Emirates A380 made a rare landing at Don Mueang Airport this morning after being diverted from Suvarnabhumi Airport due to heavy smog.
This marks only the second time an A380 has landed at Don Mueang.
@ThaiEnquirer
An Emirates A380 made a rare landing at Don Mueang Airport this morning after being diverted from Suvarnabhumi Airport due to heavy smog.
This marks only the second time an A380 has landed at Don Mueang.
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