PHUKET, Thailand (AP): Half of the systems to detect potentially dangerous wind shear were not working at the time of a crash at a Phuket airport that killed 89 people on board and injured more than 40 others, officials said Tuesday.
The budget One-Two-Go Airlines flight OG269 was carrying 123 passengers and seven crew from Bangkok to Phuket when it skidded off a runway Sunday while landing in driving wind and rain, catching fire and engulfing some passengers in flames as others kicked out windows to escape.
Investigators have said wind shear - a sudden change in either wind speed or direction in an aircraft's flight path that can destabilize a plane - was among the possible causes of the crash.
"Three out of six low-level wind shear alert systems were not working at the time," said Vuttichai Singhamanee, director of flight standard bureau of Transport Ministry's Aviation Authority Department.
Vuttichai said the solar-powered systems - which were out of power at the time of the crash - could have made it difficult for the pilot Arief Mulyadi, to judge whether it was safe to land.
Mulyadi, who died in the crash, had come under fire from some Transport Ministry officials for landing, despite warnings from the flight tower about treacherous wind shear at the airport.
While it is too early to definitively say what caused the crash, Kajit Habnanonda, president of Orient-Thai Airlines, which owns One-Two-Go, also pointed to wind shear as a possible factor.
Kajit also defended the pilot Tuesday as having "plenty of aviation experience under his belt."
Kajit said the pilot who flew the doomed aircraft was one of the best pilots in his firm.
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