The jet eventually reached its destination safely after a five-hour delay at Suvarnabhumi and lengthy arguments between passengers and airline representatives.

One of the 94 passengers, Anothai Polsuwan, 40, a lecturer at Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, said they boarded at 9.35am and after half an hour into the flight, the captain announced that a technical problem had occurred and turned the plane back to Bangkok.

Passengers were told they would have a new plane ready for departure at 12.45, Anothai said. He and his co-passengers believed that the "the technical problem" was in fact the cover of the upper section of the jet's right wing that had peeled off.

They noticed that the mechanics fixing the wing did not look too confident, he said.

After two hours of waiting,

 they became upset upon learning that they had to fly on the same aircraft, which the budget airline's officials insisted had been repaired, he said.

The chief mechanic was summoned to assure the passengers that the missing component - which was not replaced due to the lack of a spare - would not impair the aircraft's operability.

But some passengers were not convinced. They insisted that Thai AirAsia officials back up their word that the plane was safe by getting on with them and flying to Narathiwat.

"If it's a test flight, I won't complain, but this is a plane full of passengers. How can you fly it when its wing has no cover like that?" Anothai said.

Airline officials even offered to refund the airfare. But after an hour of furious discussion between both sides, the passengers gave in and boarded the plane, finally arriving without any further adventure in Narathiwat at 2.30pm.