Faulty plane door delays Nok Air fliers

Passengers of a Nok Air flight were stranded at Nan airport yesterday for more than three hours after a rear cabin door could not be securely closed before takeoff.

The crew of Flight DD8819, bound for Bangkok’s Don Mueang, asked 86 passengers, about 40 of them VIPS and members of the press, to alight from the plane and wait in the passenger terminal after the airline’s technical staff failed to fix the problem.

The Bombardier Q400 twin turboprop was scheduled to take off on the hourlong flight to Bangkok at 10.50am.

A similar incident occurred on Feb 6 when a fully booked Nok Air flight from Lampang airport was cancelled after a door could not be securely locked.

Nok Air chief executive Patee Sarasin said he expected that some nuts on the door might be loose or had malfunctioned.

The aircraft could not take off for safety reasons, he said, so the company sent a replacement plane to Nan airport.

The new plane took off from Nan airport at 2.35pm and arrived in Bangkok at 3.55pm.

He said experts will inspect the aircraft and find the cause of the problem.

The plane is new and has only been in service for 3-4 months.

However, Mr Patee said it is common to encounter minor problems with new planes.

NoK Air has purchased six Bombardier planes and four have been delivered.

No problems have been found with the other three delivered aircraft, Mr Patee said.

The flight that was unable to take off had many VIP passengers on board, along with members of the press, who had attended celebrations for Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn 60th birthday.

VIPs included Privy Councillor Palakorn Suwannarat, National Reform Council president Thianchai Kiranan and central bank governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul.