More than 50 passengers were injured, six seriously, when a Bangkok-Denchai passenger train rammed at the rear of the Bangkok-Nong Khai train near Phachee district of Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya last night.
The accident happened as the State Railways of Thailand celebrated its 118 establishment anniversary yesterday.
The crash of the Bell 212 helicopter that killed nine Army officers yesterday in Phayao province has raised widespread concern in the social network of whether this model of rotorcraft is still safe as one of the victims posted a message on his Facebook just before airborne saying the aircraft was old.
Sergeant Master (first class) Anant Chomchiengkam posted on his Facebook at 7.00 am before joining the team of the deputy commander of the Third Army Region Maj Songpol Thongjin to visit troops at various bases in Phayao and Chiang Rai on Monday.
His message reads “it’s time now to challenge the sky…the cold wind again… old copter.. new pilot…. weather closes…hell door opens….”
He also wrote he was very glad that the deputy commander of the Third Army offered him a hand shake before boarding the aircraft to begin the visit.
The officer was among the nine killed in the fatal crash.
A villager who witnessed the crash yesterday said he heard unusual sound like the copter was choking and then spinning and hitting a tree before crashing into the field.
Bell 212 helicopter had earlier crashed in Kaeng Kracharn national park in Phetburi province on July 24, 2011 killing three senior army officers.
Malfunctioning of the tail rotor was found to be the cause of the crash.
The Army has commissioned the Bell 212 helicopter in services for search and rescue operations with the installation of the lifting slings. It now has about 40 Bell 212 helicopters in use at all army bases across the country.
Meanwhile the Army has set up a committee to investigate the cause.
All the bodies of the officers were contained in coffins covered with national flags and carried in a convoy of army vehicles at noon today from Phayao back to the Third Army headquarters in Phitsanulok for religious ceremony.
The convoy is expected to arrive at Kuhasawan temple this evening where royal cremation ceremony will be held as an honour for the nine officers.
Religious ceremonies will be from today until November 25 when funeral will be held at 4.00 pm at Wat Kuhasawan.
YANGON, Myanmar – A domestic Myanma Airways flight had a minor landing mishap Monday, one of two on the same day in Asia involving the same model of Chinese-made twin turboprop aircraft. There were no deaths in either accident.
The accident, the third since late December, comes as Myanmar is experiencing a boom in tourism after instituting democratic reforms that caused western nations to lift most longstanding sanctions that had been applied against the previous repressive military regime.
Myanmar state television showed the scene of the bad landing in Kawthaung in southeastern Myanmar. The Facebook page of the national police said the aircraft carrying four crew members and 60 passengers swerved off one side of the runway on landing Monday on a flight from Mawlamyine that had originated from Yangon, the country’s biggest city.
State-owned Myanmar Airways skidded off the runway on landing at the Kawthaung Airport in southern Myanmar on Monday due to a hydraulic system failure. No injuries were reported.
The Chinese-made MA60 plane, carrying 60 passengers and 4 flight crew, skidded about 200 feet west of the runway and came to rest in some bushes. Both propellers on the plane’s wings have been damaged but no one was injured.
“[The pilot] took caution in landing the airplane after seeing the hydraulic system failure signal. After the plane’s wheel touched the runway, the plane skidded off about 200 feet from the runway’s edge,” said Than Htun, managing director of Myanmar Airways.
The airplane operates daily domestic flights from Yangon to Mawlamyaing and Kawthaung.
“After the plane took off it returned back to Yangon, which they said was due to mechanical errors. Nothing happened on the way from Yangon to Mawlamyaing. It only happened when we arrived in Kawthaung. The passengers were in chaos and a baby fell under the seat,” said a passenger.
A similar event occurred on May 16 in which the MA60 plane with registration XY-AIQ on Heho-Monghsat flight overran the runaway on landing at Monghsat airport because of a brake problem, causing two serious injuries and substantial damage to the aircraft. Continue reading “Myanmar Airways Bad landing in Kawthaung -VIDEO”→
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Nine people were onboard a Thai Army Black Hawk that crashed in a forest in Burma across the border from Thailand on Tuesday, according to the Bangkok Post. Also on board the aircraft were two reporters, the source said.
According to an army source, Maj-Gen Tawan Ruangsri, commander of the 9th Infantry Division, and a number of army officers were flying to oversee the retrieval of the bodies of five soldiers who were killed in an earlier helicopter crash in Kaeng Krachan National Park in Ratchaburi province in Thailand on Saturday.
The national park lies along the Burmese border next to Burma’s Tenasserim Division.
The Black Hawk helicopter reportedly crashed before noon into the forest inside Burma, opposite Ban Khao Mai Daeng in Ratchaburi’s Kaeng Krachan district.
Further details were unavailable and the fate of those on board was not known.
Thai media reported the earlier crash on Saturday occurred half a mile from the Burma border. The helicopter, working on anti-logging operations in the national park, crashed in poor weather.
The army reportedly has six Black Hawk helicopters in operation. This is the first to have crashed.
democracy for burma 
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