Nov 27, 2000

Passengers on Thai Airways flight TG 687 from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam with 155 people on board, had to be evacuated via emergency exits late Friday night and were taken in buses to the airport terminal in Bangkok.

The jet's nose landing gear collapsed as it taxied off a runway at Bangkok international airport.

A statement issued by the airline said the pilot had landed the aircraft and decreased the taxi speed to ground speed.

"While turning off the runway, the nose landing gear collapsed, which caused the aircraft to stop immediately," it said.

The Boeing 737-400 aircraft had departed Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, at 9 pm and landed in Bangkok at 10.30 pm.

Thai Airways International head of public relations Theerasin Saengrangsee was quoted as saying: "there was a panic among passengers but no injuries".

The accident caused delays to some flights, as the airport's runway was closed until the damaged airliner could be removed.

The plane which joined the Thai Airways fleet in 1992, was taken to the airline's maintenance center for repairs and a complete check.

The airline said it would conduct a thorough inspection into the cause of the incident.

On Saturday, a rear wheel of an Indian Airlines plane caught fire on landing at Calcutta airport.

In both cases, passengers were unharmed though shaken and inconvenienced by the delays caused by the accidents.

In the Indian Airlines incident all 219 passengers, including a federal minister, were unharmed.

The Airbus A300 from New Delhi to Calcutta touched down at 9.05 am and a rear wheel caught fire as soon as it touched the tarmac, officials said.

The exact cause of the fire was not clear but investigators suspected "some kind of friction", an aviation source in Calcutta told AFP.

http://news.airwise.com/stories/2000/11/975331331.html

-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), November 27, 2000