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Published on September 19, 2007

Before the information is extracted from the black boxes of the ill-fated One-Two-Go plane that crashed in Phuket on Sunday, the dispute over what caused Flight OG 269 to hit the runway and to break in two continues.

Three major parties involved - the budget airline itself, the air traffic control at Phuket airport, and weather forecast officials - are giving conflicting information on what actually went wrong.

After informing Flight OG 269 about the bad weather situation, the airport and runway conditions, which were clear for landing, the air traffic controller asked the Indonesian pilot for a confirmation of his decision, according to Kumtorn Sirikorn, executive vice president of Aeronautical Radio of Thailand.

"Request your intention," the air traffic controller asked.

The pilot 56-year-old Arief Mulyadi replied: "Landing".

This was one of the last words of communication between the air traffic controller at Phuket airport and Arief, who decided to land the ill-fated One-Two Go aircraft.

Shortly afterward, the aircraft crashed and broke into three, killing 89 passengers and injuring 41 others in one of Thailand's worst air tragedies.

Kumtorn provided this account of conversation between the air traffic controller and Arief. He had listened to the tape recording replaying what happened at the critical moment before the aircraft landing.

The revelation, however, is far from the tell-tale evidence of what caused the plane to crash, including whether it was human error. There have been contradictions in accounts regarding the roles of the pilot and the air traffic controller.

Kumtorn told The Nation that the air traffic controller had earlier been in communication about the bad weather conditions with the pilots of Orient Thai Airlines, which successfully landed about four minutes before the One-Two-Go aircraft's crash-landing.

"There was a warning of wind shear from the pilot of the previous flight, which landed four minutes ahead of One-Two-Go," he told Agence France-Presse in a separate interview.

Arief and his co-pilot also listened to this conversation between the air traffic controller and the pilots of Orient Thai Airlines since their radio receivers were tuned to the same wave- lengths.

They were aware about the rather unusual weather conditions at that moment.

Kajit Habanananda, vice president of One-Two-Go airline, said that Arief Mulyadi, the Indonesian pilot who died, was an experienced aviator and served as an instructor to all 90 pilots including some 30 Thais employed by One-Two-Go.

"He was our number-one pilot. He was composed and well-versed," he added.

Kumtorn said the air traffic controller who conversed with the pilot was experienced and had not been suspended. The unidentified controller was assigned to undergo a psychological rehabilitation course, under regulations after an accident.

The pilot's son told Jakarta-based Tempo newspaper that a senior officer of One-Two-Go Airlines told him that his father had asked to turn back to Bangkok.

Arief Mulyadi once told his son that of all the places he had flown, Phuket had the worst weather, according to the Jakarta Post. But it also had the most beautiful scenery from above.

"Father promised to come home to see his grandsons on Sept. 28," Arief's oldest son, Agung, told news portal detik.com on Monday.

Kumtorn said the air traffic controller told Arief, who was among the dead, that weather conditions were bad.

"Air traffic control asked the pilot whether he knew about the wind shear, and he said he knew. Then the air traffic control official gave him additional information and asked him whether he still wanted to land or not. The pilot insisted he wanted to land.

"Maybe something unusual occurred during his landing attempt."

Kuntorn said nobody knew the exact reasons of the accident and all are waiting for the outcome of the investigation from the black boxes.

Metta Amin, chief of the weather examination unit in Phuket province, said weather conditions at the Phuket airport during the accident were very volatile.

The wind speed suddenly accelerated from 12 knots at 3.30pm to 28-30 knots at 3.42pm, he said.

This happened eight minutes before the crash, before the wind slowed down to 12 knots at 4pm.

Normally his office would update the meteorological information to air traffic control tower every half an hour. But on Sunday between 3.30pm and 4pm, he said his office had to update the weather conditions to the tower four times due to the abrupt changing weather conditions.

The first update was made at 3.30pm. The wind speed was 12 knots and the visibility range was four kilometres. The second update was made at 3.35pm as a result of a sudden heavy downpour which had taken place three minutes earlier.

The third weather update was made at 3.45pm when the wind speed accelerated from 12 knots to 28-30 knots and the visibility range was dramatically dropped to 800 metres at 3.42pm.

"It was an abrupt gusty wind," he said in an interview with The Nation. He added that gusty winds left no time for warnings given to pilots in most cases.

However, Metta declined to comment if the abrupt gusts of wind would affect the landing.

He also denied speculation about the wind shear and microburst. Wind shear is a difference in wind speed and/or direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere, while a microburst is a very localised column of sinking air, producing damaging divergent and straight-line winds at the surface.

The last update was made by Metta's office to the air traffic control tower at Phuket airport at 4pm. The wind speed was 12 knots, but visibility had dropped from 4 km at 3.30pm to only 1 km.

"All the weather information form my office was reported to air traffic control tower and the controllers would then inform pilot," he said.

Udom Tantiprasongchai, president of budget carrier One-Two-Go which operated the doomed plane, admitted the airline bore some responsibility for the crash.

"It is too soon to jump to conclusions, it is unfair to our staff. Please wait until the investigation is finished. But definitely it is partially our responsibility," he told reporters.

One-Two-Go's Kajit said the pilot had been warned about the wind, but urged investigators not to assume that human error was to blame for Thailand's worst air disaster in a decade.

"It's true that there was a warning of wind shear from the previous flight," Kajit said.

"But the wind is constantly changing," he said, adding that such weather conditions were the main factor that would influence a decision on whether to abort the landing.

Chaisak Angsuwan, director-general of the Air Transport Department, said the cause of the crash should not involve the type of the MD82 aircraft, as another MD82 also operated by One-Two-Go airline, landed safely four minutes before flight OG-269.

He said all airlines operating in Thailand were qualified to meet flight safety standards under International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) requirements, whether they were low-cost or luxury airlines.

One-Two-Go will pay Bt100,000 in initial compensatory payments to each of the 123 passengers and provide free flights to relatives of those killed or injured in the crash between Bangkok and Phuket, said government spokesman Yongyuth Mayalarp.

He said the information in the two black boxes, each containing the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, would be extracted at the US National Transportation Safety Board within the next ten days.

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont yesterday instructed government agencies to take care of compensatory payments for families of the Thais who had been killed and for the rehabilitation of the 41 injured passengers.

The Consumer Protection Board will make sure each individual insurance coverage will fully benefit or compensate each beneficiary, while the Tourism and Sports Ministry will soon work out solutions to boost tourism and build-up the safety image of travel in Thailand.

The Nation