Thai Airways Flight To Singapore Returns Due To Cracked Windshield, Chaotic Passenger Handling

A Thai Airways flight from Bangkok to Singapore had to turn around short after take-off of flight TG401 on Sunday night as a small crack on the aircraft’s windshield appeared and maintenance is much easier at the carrier’s home base.

Unfortunately, THAI didn’t handle the deplaned passengers very well or efficiently, including lying to them about which hotel they’d be transported to and housed in.

As luck would have it, a friend of mine was on board as well, and I was getting real-time updates about the situation, which didn’t turn out to be very comfortable at all.

Here a few pictures from the flight and tracking:

After being back on the ground first nobody really knew what to do with the passengers. By the time everything was said and done the last Singapore had already left anyway.

Passengers were forced to sit around endlessly. My recommendation was to immediately tell them to rebook for the next day and to go to a hotel. Don’t let the staff lead you around by the nose for hours. I have learned my lesson over the years.

The Bangkok Post also reported about this case:

THAI issued a statement on Monday saying the pilot of flight TG401 from Bangkok to Singapore on Sunday decided to return to Suvarnabhumi airport after the captain detected a crack in the outer layer of a leftside cockpit window.

The windows have three layers of acrylic glass. …

Passengers were transferred to another plane, special flight TG401D, which departed from Suvarnabhumi at 9am on Monday. It landed at Changi airport, Singapore, at 12.25pm local time (11.25am Thailand time), the announcement said.

THAI uses a twin-engine Airbus A330-300 on the Singapore route.

What an Odyssey. Passengers didn’t reach the hotel until midnight and had to be get back up at 6am in the morning. The entire organization was a disaster.

Despite the ground staff telling my friends they would be staying at the Novotel in Bang Na, the bus eventually brought them all to a local “The Green View” hotel where they had to stay overnight:

I already said while this was still going on, don’t trust what THAI staff tells you. They lie all the time, and you had better go on your own and then claim expenses later.

All passengers were transported to the hotel by bus after being funneled back through immigration. The airline even retained all their passports, gave them a cheap plastic bracelet and then returned all documents next morning at the gate.

Honestly, I’d never have agreed to that. Give me my passport back and bring me to immigration. They can cancel my exit or stamp me back in (this happened to me before when Qatar canceled a flight a few years ago). I will make my own way back to the airport. No way am I going to leave my airport with strangers in a foreign country.

Thai Airways didn’t offer any compensation and simply dropped the passengers off the next day. Is this really an acceptable way of doing business? I don’t think so.

Conclusion

A Singapore-bound THAI was forced to return to BKK airport on Sunday night due to a technical issue, and once on the ground, the entire episode turned into a clown show.

First Thai Airways took forever to take care of the passengers – at their hub airport no less – and then lied to them as to which hotel they’d be staying at. To ship passengers off to a local hotel far away from the airport rather than accommodating them at the adjacent Novotel is poor, even for THAI standards. Especially given the time and that everyone had to be back for the 9am departure next morning.

This website suggests that based on CAAT rules, passengers are entitled to 1200 Baht compensation for delays longer than 6 hours (what a joke) as well as accommodation which was provided. No word about this from the airline to passengers, not even an apology. I suggest everyone to file a written complaint!

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