September 16: On This Day in World History … briefly
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
2007: One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269 carrying 128 crew and passengers crashes in Thailand killing 89 people
One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269 (OG269), a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashed into an embankment beside runway 27 at Phuket International Airport (HKT) bursting into flames upon impact on 16 September 2007, about 15.41 ICT during an attempted go-around after an aborted landing, killing 89 of the 130 persons on board. (One survivor succumbed to burn injuries several days after the crash). OG269 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Bangkok to Phuket, Thailand.
A two-year investigation by NTSB resulted in a report largely incorporated into the crash report published by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee of the Ministry of Transport. Both reports found that the captain and first officer had worked hours vastly in excess of the legal flight limits; that the first officer attempted to transfer control to the captain during the go-around; that neither pilot initiated a go-around and that the training and safety programs at the airline were deficient.
Corruption within One-Two-GO Airlines and the Thai Department of Civil Aviation was a factor for crash investigators. A television crew initially learned of fraudulent work rosters for the captain and first officer, obfuscating their illegal work schedule, had been provided to the crash investigators. The lead Thai Department of Civil Aviation investigator reported that documents he had received from One-Two-GO were fiction. The National Transportation Safety Board report included the true work rosters, obtained by the family of a victim. The NTSB report documented possible check ride fraud among four other One-Two-GO pilots in the months following the crash. Legal filings and press articles reference an email among executives of One-Two-GO Airlines, including CEO Udom Tantiprasongchai.
More than three years after the crash, a British coroner cited the ‘flagrant disregard for passenger safety’ by the airline and said ‘the primary failure so far as I am concerned relates to the corporate culture which prevailed both One-Two-GO Airlines and Orient Thai Airlines prior to and following the air crash.’
Between 2009 and 2010 One-Two-Go Airlines was prohibited from operating in European Union nations due to safety concerns. At the time of the accident the airline was owned by Orient Thai Airlines and in July 2010, it fully re-branded as Orient Thai Airlines.
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