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Published on September 19, 2007

Chaisak Angsuwan, director-general of the Air Transport Department, said he had confirmed that the landing gear was not deployed while the pilot was trying to climb again.

A commercial pilot, who asked to not be named, said it was not possible that the pilot would retract the landing gear while ascending as it was counter to basic flight procedure.

2. How did wind shear affect the landing?

Kamthorn Sirikorn, a senior Aerothai official, said air traffic controllers had informed the pilot about the 40-knot wind shear above the runway. It should have been solely the pilot's decision to land that resulted in the accident. Kamthorn said he was not sure whether mechanical failure or bad weather contributed to the crash.

A weather forecast official said the wind speed at 40 knots was quite powerful but that it was regular, and an experienced and decisive pilot should land the plane safely under such circumstances.

3. Did the plane perform a go-around before attempting to land?

Kamthorn said no confirmation on that was available. But news reports said passengers on board another flight said they saw OG-269 perform a go-around twice while all survivors of OG-269 said their aircraft did not perform a go-around.

4. Did the pilot warn the passengers about poor visibility and a possible go-around before landing?

No, according to the survivors.

5. Did any other flights abort their landing or request landing at nearby airports?

Phornchai Ua-aree, director of Phuket airport, said all flights arriving at Phuket before OG-269 landed as usual, but said he did not remember how many exactly.

News reports quoted control tower records of conversation as saying that all last three flights arriving at Phuket landed as scheduled, before 3.50pm when OG-269 crashed.

6. Is Phuket airport difficult to land at?

The unnamed pilot said the instrument landing system (ILS) at Phuket airport had a technical limitation - it could not fully guide aircraft to land automatically. Pilots are still required to land their planes manually once they fly past a ridge leading to the runway.

And given the azimuth alignment of the runway at around two degrees to the left, pilots are required to compensate their glide path around two degrees to the right, or their planes could possibly over-steer to the left during landing. The over-steering problem is okay if the runway is not wet and visibility is high. But what always follows during heavy rains at Phuket airport is a strong wind shear, which can reposition planes' approach to the tarmac during landing, he said.