On February 22nd, a Thai Smile Airbus A320-200 suffered an engine failure flying from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) to Phuket International Airport (HKT) on Phuket Island.
The failure took place as the aircraft was conducting its descent towards Phuket.
Incident details
Taking place on Wednesday, February 22nd, the Thai Smile Airbus A320-200 registered HS-TXG was performing flight WE207 from Bangkok to Phuket. The service departed Suvarnabhumi airport roughly half an hour late – 11:59 compared to its scheduled 11:30 local time.
The majority of the flight was uneventful. However, according to The Aviation Herald, the jet was making its descent towards Phuket when one of its engines failed.
As Phuket was obviously the closest suitable airport to the aircraft at the time, the crew continued with landing at Phuket’s runway 09.
The touchdown was reported to be a hard landing resulting in a tail strike. However, the A320 rolled out safely with no reported injuries. While passengers seemed to have faired well, the same could not be said of Phuket’s runway 09, nor the A320.
According to AseanNow, the runway had to be closed down for repairs, which delayed approximately 20 flights. Repairs were minor, and lasted about an hour. As for the A320, it remains on the ground at Phuket at the time of this article’s publication – three days after the incident. AseanNow notes that the Phuket Information Centre took to social media and stated that the aircraft is awaiting inspection and repair.
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About the incident aircraft
The Airbus A320-200 registered HS-TXG (MSN 5806) was delivered to Thai Smile in October 2013 and is nine-and-a-half years of age at the time of this article’s publication. Configured with 168 seats, the aircraft is powered by a pair of IAE V2500 turbofans. The jet was delivered directly to the Thai Airways group from Airbus and had no previous operators.
A regional subsidiary of Thai Airways, Thai Smile’s fleet consists solely of Airbus A320-200s, with the current quantity of airframes sitting at 20. The average age of the fleet is currently 9.2 years.
In terms of notable, reported incidents, Thai Smile seems to have done fairly well over the past three or four years. Indeed, the most recent incident recorded, prior to February 22nd, took place on November 27th, 2019.
Of course, a large portion of this clean record during this period could be explained by the airline operating fewer flights as a result of the pandemic.
2019 saw Thai Smile A320s involved in three incidents according to data from AeroInside:
- November 27th, 2019: Loss of cabin pressure
- April 22nd, 2019: Turbulence resulting in serious injuries
- January 9th, 2019: An improperly closed aft cargo door, leading to minor damage
From its hub at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, Thai Smile serves destinations within Thailand and the greater Southeast Asia region. However, it also flies as far as India, Nepal, Taiwan, and central China. – SimpleFlying.Com
