Technology

Engine Failure Onboard Thai Smile Airbus A320 Leads To Tail Strike

10 months ago 3 min read

On February twenty second, a Thai Smile Airbus A320-200 suffered an engine failure flying from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) to Phuket Worldwide Airport (HKT) on Phuket Island. The failure came about because the plane was conducting its descent in direction of Phuket.

Incident particulars

Happening on Wednesday, February twenty second, the Thai Smile Airbus A320-200 registered HS-TXG was performing flight WE207 from Bangkok to Phuket. The service departed Suvarnabhumi airport roughly half an hour late – 11:59 in comparison with its scheduled 11:30 native time.

Nearly all of the flight was uneventful. Nonetheless, in keeping with The Aviation Herald, the jet was making its descent in direction of Phuket when one among its engines failed. As Phuket was clearly the closest appropriate airport to the plane on the time, the crew continued with touchdown at Phuket’s runway 09.

The landing was reported to be a tough touchdown leading to a tail strike. Nonetheless, the A320 rolled out safely with no reported accidents. Whereas passengers appeared to have faired nicely, the identical couldn’t be stated of Phuket’s runway 09, nor the A320.

In accordance with AseanNow, the runway needed to be closed down for repairs, which delayed roughly 20 flights. Repairs have been minor, and lasted about an hour. As for the A320, it stays on the bottom at Phuket on the time of this text’s publication – three days after the incident. AseanNow notes that the Phuket Data Centre took to social media and said that the plane is awaiting inspection and restore.

Concerning the incident plane

The Airbus A320-200 registered HS-TXG (MSN 5806) was delivered to Thai Smile in October 2013 and is nine-and-a-half years of age on the time of this text’s publication. Configured with 168 seats, the plane is powered by a pair of IAE V2500 turbofans. The jet was delivered on to the Thai Airways group from Airbus and had no earlier operators.

A regional subsidiary of Thai Airways, Thai Smile’s fleet consists solely of Airbus A320-200s, with the present amount of airframes sitting at 20. The common age of the fleet is at the moment 9.2 years.

By way of notable, reported incidents, Thai Smile appears to have performed pretty nicely over the previous three or 4 years. Certainly, the latest incident recorded, previous to February twenty second, came about on November twenty seventh, 2019. In fact, a big portion of this clear document throughout this era could possibly be defined by the airline working fewer flights because of the pandemic. 2019 noticed Thai Smile A320s concerned in three incidents in keeping with knowledge from AeroInside:

November twenty seventh, 2019: Lack of cabin strain
April twenty second, 2019: Turbulence leading to severe accidents
January ninth, 2019: An improperly closed aft cargo door, resulting in minor injury

From its hub at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, Thai Smile serves locations inside Thailand and the better Southeast Asia area. Nonetheless, it additionally flies so far as India, Nepal, Taiwan, and central China.

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Sources: The Aviation Herald, FlightRadar24.com, Planespotters.web, AseanNow, AeroInside