Thai Aircraft Grounded in Europe

[Guest fountainhall]

There are reports on various internet sites today about a Boeing 737 belonging to the Royal Thai Airforce being impounded at Munich airport. It seems that a German tribunal awarded a German investor more than

[KhorTose]

Yes it can be elaborated on this board, you just have to be careful. The background can be found here, and you can read about how the owner of this plane reacted in the past when he felt slighted.

 

http://www.zenjournalist.com/

 

This is from Andrew Marshall's blog and it is a great story.

[Rogie]

. . . and it is a great story.

And so is the tale of retired

[Guest]

Seems like a good way to recover losses.

[Guest fountainhall]

In an article headed “Kasit off to Germany to retrieve royal jet”, the Bangkok Post finally gives details of the seizing of the Boeing 737 at Munich airport.

 

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya left for Germany last night to seek the release of HRH Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn's plane impounded at Munich airport by German liquidators since Tuesday to recover debts in a commercial bankruptcy case.

 

Describing the plane seizure as a "huge mistake", Mr Kasit said he would inform the German government of his grave concern about the incident and would ask the German court to immediately release the plane.

 

"This airplane is personal property, not that of the Thai government. So the German government cannot seize it," Mr Kasit said.

 

He said a team of Thai lawyers including the attorney-general and a deputy director-general of the Treaties and Legal Affairs Department were sent to Munich on Tuesday to coordinate with German legal officials.

 

Mr Kasit said the government had written to and spoken with German foreign ministry officials and appointed a lawyer to defend the case . . .

 

Stefan Duppel, the German embassy's charge d'affaires, said the airplane seizure was a normal legal action and the liquidators were not obliged to inform or consult with the German government beforehand.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/247118/kasit-off-to-germany-to-retrieve-royal-jet

 

In a similar article in The Nation -

 

Kasit said he had placed Schneider (Werner Schneider, the insolvency administrator for the firm at the centre of the affair) on the "persona non grata" list banning him from entering Thailand.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/07/15/national/Thailands-making-all-efforts-to-end-aircraft-spat--30160340.html

 

Seems to me that once again Thailand is using the “persona non grata” ban with somewhat cavalier abandon.

[pong]

flew back to Europe with the main airline of this country a few days ago-but via its other main hub and thus got the newspaper edited in the city where this plane is held. it said the entire crew took up lodging in the Kempinski hotel (part of a Thai chain-thus likely the Dusit?) at the airport. They kept themselves amused and busy by going picking straw- and other berries, a total of 40 and 60 kgs. As such the matter now still lies with the German court.

The lawfirm concerned seems to have much experience with these type of seizures, it is not their 1st or 2nd.

On a similar manner, Belgium once seized a Congo-airplane (an old dilapidated ex Russky Tupolev or so) as ransom for payment due (Mobuto was still alive), but they got stubborn and simple abandoned that plane-which stood for years rusting further at some minor airport, untill Belgium also had to cough up the money to dispose of it properly.

[Guest fountainhall]

The Bangkok Post reports today that a German Court has now ordered the release of the Crown Prince

[PattayaMale]

Isn't it OUTRAGEOUS that the same blind respect for the Prince does not extend to Germany as it is in Thailand? I can not believe they would dare to treat a member of the RF as a commoner!!

[Guest fountainhall]

Oh dear, I fear you come down too hard on Germany! You really have to make allowances for the poor Germans, though, for they no longer have a royal family and as such are clearly quite unaware of the proper way of doing things.

 

And let's face it, their last Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm, was sadly no model of an enlightened monarchy. In her recent, wonderfully wrtten book, The Three Emperors, Miranda Carter describes Wilhelm as manifesting -

 

many symptoms of a 'narcissistic personality disorder': arrogance, grandiose self-importance, a mammoth sense of entitlement, fantasies about unlimited success and power, a belief in his own uniqueness and brilliance; a need for endless admiration and reinforcement, and a hatred of criticism.

Mind you, the rest of European royalty at the time does not fare much better in Ms. Carter's view. The last heir to the Hapsburg Empire was buried at the begining of this week. Of that Empire, she says -

 

The Hapsburg family, for example, had its fair share of odd-balls (though this owed quite a lot to endemic syphilis and in-breeding): one archduke was so obsessively religious that he killed himself by drinking water from the river Jordan; several were enthusiastic cross-dressers. Empress Elizabeth, wife of Franz Joseph, cousin of mad King Ludwig of Bavaria*, devoted her entire existence to the maintenance of her eighteen-inch waist . . . It's hard to say for certain whether Wilhelm's problems stemmed from pathology or the eccentricities of the European royal production line.

The Three Emperors: Thee Cousins, Three Empires and the Road to World War One

Miranda Carter

Peguin Books

 

* A postscript. Mad King Ludwig bankrupted the Bavarian treasury, partly by backing the huge ambitions of the composer Richard Wagner, and partly by building the most extraordinary castles at Herrenhiemsee outside Munich (intended as Bavaria's answer to Versailles), Neuschwanstein (a Wagnerian, almost Disney-esque creation and featured on many German tourist posters - photo below), Hohenschwangau and Linderhof (the last now in Austria). If you are ever in the Munich area, you absolutely must see them. Ludwig died in mysterious circumstances at the age of 40. The bodies of the King and his psychiatrist were pulled from a lake, almost certainly murdered.

[Guest fountainhall]

Well, it seems the Thai government has refused to pay the €20 million bond and the case now goes back to court in the second week of August.

 

"His Royal Highness has nothing to do with the case, which is between the Thai government and [the now-insolvent German construction firm] Walter Bau," (Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya) said after his return from Germany yesterday.

 

"This is a most regrettable and embarrassing incident for the Crown Prince to have been drawn into.

 

The jet is his private property and it is legally registered, so there is no reason to pay the deposit for its release."

 

ACM Itthaporn Subhawong confirmed yesterday the air force handed ownership of the plane to the Crown Prince in 2007, and that registration documents were issued by the Department of Civil Aviation.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/248178/govt-refuses-to-pay-surety-for-royal-jet

 

Now that the case is out in the open in Thailand, I find it remarkable that in permitting it to drag on and on, the government is merely enabling speculation to run rife. And that, I'd have thought, it would fight to avoid!

[Guest fountainhall]

I find it remarkable that in permitting it to drag on and on, the government is merely enabling speculation to run rife. And that, I'd have thought, it would fight to avoid!

Seemingly I was wrong. In addition to now knowing that a plane with Thai Air Force markings landed in Munich, was impounded, was claimed to be the property of HRH the Crown Prince, would only be released for a large deposi and the deposit was denied, The Nation tells us today -

 

His Royal Highness Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn has expressed concern over Thai people's feelings in the wake of the seizure of his private Boeing 737 by the German authorities and asked the Thai government not to pay a deposit demanded in order to retrieve the aircraft, AttorneyGeneral Julasing Wasantasing said yesterday . . .

 

"His Royal Highness has acknowledged Thai people's feelings towards the issue, and would like Thai people to understand that he has not committed any violations relating to navigational or bilateral regulations [involving his regular flights between Thailand and Germany]," he said.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2011/07/23/national/Crown-Prince-asks-govt-not-to-pay-for-plane-30160969.html

 

So now it is not one flight but "regular flights".

 

From other sources which can not be named, more details can be obtained. But the longer the saga continues, the more the chance that there will be further dribbles of information to the Thai public. My post above dealing with Miranda Carter's book may eventually seem, shall we say, slightly less satirical.

[Guest fountainhall]

I noticed in the media the other day that Thaksin is apparently persona grata in Germany again. Banned as a fugitive from entering Germany some years ago, the German government seems now to have changed its mind. Wonder if this has anything to do with HRH’s plane incident? Perfect for Thaksin if he can be seen to solve the crisis!

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/07/30/national/Thaksin-no-longer-banned-from-Germany-says-Noppado-30161494.html

[TotallyOz]

Perfect for Thaksin if he can be seen to solve the crisis!

 

I knew that he would start to get more, "hey baby, why not come visit us" from those that want to court him or his sister. But, your scenario never occurred to me. He would be a hero if that happened wouldn't he? Then again, what if he were the one behind it to begin with?

[Guest fountainhall]

SInce his government did little (I assume) to solve the money problem with the German company, he obviously helped cause it. But, as you suggest, perhaps he had a word in someone's ear about the HRH's plane being a regular visitor to Munich . . . Create a crisis, solve it and become the Messiah again! Oooh, I love conspiracy theories

[Guest fountainhall]

Well, it seems HRH is missing the use of his plane. According to the Bangkok papers this morning, he has decided to pay out of his own pocket the bond to release his aircraft presently stuck in Munich.

 

All of which makes me wonder once again: why was Thaksin in Germany a few days ago?