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Published on September 20, 2007

Aerothai executive vice president Kumtorn Sirikorn said landing was always the pilot's decision and it was impossible that air traffic controllers anywhere in the world could order a pilot to land against his will.

Smith Thammasaroj, chairman of the National Disaster Warning Centre, also rejected the claim reportedly made by a son of late pilot Arief Mulyadi, saying that the decision absolutely lay with the pilots.

"Air traffic controllers merely provide information and pilots make their own decisions," he said.

Smith told reporters he thought the blame would eventually fall on the pilot, rather than technical faults at the airport or on the plane.

"The landing gear was kept up. That reflects he realised the weather was not suitable for landing. He was a bit slow with his second thoughts," he said.

The reported strong wind shear that could have affected the landing of flight OG269 was not detected by local instruments at Phuket Airport, Kumtorn said, adding that it was up to the Transport Ministry to investigate why the systems did not work.

The debate on what caused the crash continued into the fourth day after the accident. Information from the black boxes will not be available until next week.

Vutichai Singhamany, a safety director at the Department of Civil Aviation, had earlier told Agence France-Presse that the pilot had put the landing gear down on his approach to Phuket in a heavy storm, but retracted it and then tried in vain to pull up.

"The wheels did not touch the runway," Vutichai told AFP. "Then the plane tried to pull up and the accident happened."

Vutichai confirmed that three of the six systems designed to detect a dangerous weather phenomenon known as wind shear were not working when the passenger jet crashed, but said that may not have caused the tragedy.

The Nation,  Agence France-Presse