31 August 1987

Plane ‘shatters’ in the sea

Eighty-three people were killed when a Thai Airways Boeing 737 nose-dived into the sea and exploded eight kilometres off Phuket. The death toll was the worst ever in the domestic airline’s history. There were no survivors.

A witness said the plane shattered’ when it hit the water with pieces of wreckage thrown ‘as far as a kilometre.’ The crash was caused by communication errors between the control tower and the pilots, including the pilots of a nearby Hong Kong-based Dragonair flight, which was in the same air space.

A misunderstanding about who should land first apparently distracted the THAI pilots, who let their plane slow below stalling speed, according to the air force’s Air Inspection Department.

31 August 1987

Plane ‘shatters’ in the sea

Eighty-three people were killed when a Thai Airways Boeing 737 nose-dived into the sea and exploded eight kilometres off Phuket. The death toll was the worst ever in the domestic airline’s history. There were no survivors.

A witness said the plane shattered’ when it hit the water with pieces of wreckage thrown ‘as far as a kilometre.’ The crash was caused by communication errors between the control tower and the pilots, including the pilots of a nearby Hong Kong-based Dragonair flight, which was in the same air space.

A misunderstanding about who should land first apparently distracted the THAI pilots, who let their plane slow below stalling speed, according to the air force’s Air Inspection Department.