Home owners blame low-flying THAI plane

General News - Thursday December 20, 2007

AoT petitioned over damaged roofs

Home owners blame low-flying THAI plane

CHEEWIN SATTHA

Chiang Mai _ About 20 local residents yesterday petitioned Airports of Thailand (AoT) for assistance, alleging the roofs of their houses were damaged by a Thai Airways International (THAI) plane that flew too low as it was on approach to Chiang Mai airport last week.

The national carrier has denied responsibility for the damaged rooftops, saying the airport's control tower guided the aircraft in to land.

The residents threatened to take the case to the Administrative Court if nothing was done to redress their grievances.

Rainer Gahhenschmidt and his wife Supaporn lodged a complaint on behalf of at least 20 residents of Nimmannoradee housing estate with Wing Commander Prateep Wijittoh, who heads the AoT's Chiang Mai office.

The couple urged the AoT to inspect the damaged roofs.

They said a Thai Airways flight TG 110 had flown too low over houses in the estate on Dec 12. Vibration from the landing plane caused roof tiles to crack and fall off.

Mrs Supaporn said THAI's Chiang Mai office passed the responsibility on to the AoT, saying it was the control tower which directed incoming aircraft.

''We bought the houses eight years ago when there were only a few flights arriving in Chiang Mai. The last flight into the airport then was at 9.30pm,'' she said.

The couple said the expansion of the airport and the government's plan to promote it as a regional aviation hub had increased the number of flights and their houses were directly under the airport's flight path.

She said besides damage to the roofs, residents also suffered from noise and air pollution as well as the vibration of roaring plane engines, particularly at night.

''Our housing estate is known as the village of the deaf because of the frequent exposure to aircraft noise,'' one resident said.

Wg Cdr Prateep said he would ask the AoT head office to send an inspection team to look at the damaged roofs. Equipment would also be installed to measure noise levels from aircraft at the housing estate, he said.

He criticised THAI for jumping to conclusions saying it was possible for a low-flying plane to generate a vortex powerful enough to damage the roofs of houses.

At present, there are 85 domestic and international flights taking off and landing at the airport daily. More flights including chartered ones are expected in the coming weeks with the onset of the year-end holidays.

THAI public relations director ML Achara na Songkhla has written to the affected residents explaining that the flight in question had nothing to do with the falling roof tiles.

She said Chiang Mai airport technicians working at the control tower on Dec 12 confirmed there was no abnormal landing pattern involving any THAI aircraft that day.

The information mirrored the result of a flight simulation conducted by the company resembling the landing characteristics of flight TG110. The result showed the aircraft was not capable of causing the roof damage, she said.

Bangkok Post