Gaybutton Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 BANGKOK, Jan 22 (TNA) Transport Minister Admiral Thira Haocharoen has threatened to reshuffle the management of the Airports of Thailand should it fail to accelerate the examination of reported taxiway cracks at Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi Airport. The minister on Monday said he had urged the company's board and management to probe and deal with the cracks initially found in 60-100 spots of almost 10 areas of the airport. An initial examination found the problem might stem from the filling and levelling of taxiway areas with sand that does not meet the standard. However, he said he would wait for details of the examination. Should there be any irregularities, an investigation would be made. Those involved in the irregularities must be punished. Regarding a contractor's plan to seek compensation for a claim from Dhipaya Insurance Plc by citing taxiway cracks resulted from major flooding last year, Adm. Thira said he needed to heed the reasons given by many parties. He could not judge based on information given by a particular party. The minister said he would go to inspect the taxiway by himself late this month. Should there be any obstacle to taking off and landing of aircraft, it would be closed for repair. Whether the taxiway would be partially or entirely closed for repair would be determined again. He conceded taxi-way and run-way cracks would be used as one of reasons for his decision on whether the Don Muang International Airport would be reopened for some flight services. Adm. Thira admitted he remained unhappy with AoT's efforts to solve the problems that Suvarnabhumi Airport is facing. He said he had already urged the tackling of the problems through the board, but it seemed the management was slow in coping with them. Unless its performance improves, he said, the board had authority to reshuffle it. (TNA)-E005 Quote
Gaybutton Posted January 22, 2007 Author Posted January 22, 2007 It's almost as if those who designed and those who constructed Suvarnabhumi International Airport could collaborate on a book entitled, "How to Screw Up an Airport." It's really getting to be unbelievable. In a thread above I posted about how even the immigration officers have to be trained on simply treating travelers appropriately. Just about everything one can think of is having problems at the new airport, ranging from excessively long distances to and from gates, lack of enough toilet facilities and the locations of them, to check-in and luggage delays, to duty free shops, and the list goes on and on. Now there are obvious concerns about the very safety of the runways and taxiways. And this is going to be the major hub of all Asia? Somehow I don't picture the airlines that service Asia lining up for space at this particular airport. It's just a disgrace. I think they'd be better off closing down the whole thing, creating a park or something, and going back to Don Muang, where everything was running smoothly in the first place. The following appears in the BANGKOK POST: _____ Runway Cracks Widen at Suvarnabhumi Cracks in the runways at Suvarnabhumi Airport runways have expanded and may affect passenger safety, according to the head of a panel looking into the construction of the multibillion-baht facility. "The cracks in the runway and taxiways are truly an urgent matter that could become cri-tical, particularly to the safety of passengers, if nothing is solved," said Prapan Koonmee, chairman of the National Legislative Assembly's Suvarnabhumi Airport subcommittee. Prapan and his panel visited the airport yesterday to inspect the construction-related problems, as well as alleged irregularities in the space allocated to duty-free shops. The panel found several cracks on the runways and taxiways as well as in the terminal buildings and floors, which they believe are a result of construction flaws. "If the airport had been operational for two or three years we could put it down to heavy use. But the current situation shows the problems at Suvarnabhumi are likely to come from its construction," said Prapan. He added the runway and taxiway cracks had spread and as much as 100,000 square metres of tarmac would be affected if nothing were done. "It is crucial that the involved parties find the causes and solutions to this matter," said Prapan. He claimed debris from a cracked runway overseas had caused an aircraft accident that killed 130 people. The subcommittee will conclude its investigation in two to three weeks and then report to the government. It will ask parties involved in the airport's construction to give evidence on Friday. Quote
Guest kenrfc Posted January 23, 2007 Posted January 23, 2007 Or as WC Fields would say: "Sometimes a man has to take the bull by the tail and face the situation." Quote
