DHAKA, April 30 – A Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) transport aircraft carrying 15 people skidded off airport runway in Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka on Monday while it was landing, with two passengers reportedly suffering minor injuries, according to an RTAF spokesperson.
Thai Air Vice Marshal Monthon Satchukorn told Thai News Agency in an telephone interview from Dhaka that the RTAF ART72-500 was commissioned at Wing 6 at Don Mueang Air Force Base and was on a regular drill mission aboard.
He said the aircraft skidded off the runway while landing in Dhaka. It slipped to hit the concrete wall and the right wing was damaged.
Two pilots on a flight training mission were slightly injured, he said, adding that there were 15 pilots and engineers on the plane.
Marshal Monthon said the cause of the accident was not yet known, but that RTAF is sending a team of investigators to probe the incident as soon as possible.
The aircraft departed Don Mueang at 6am this morning on a training mission beginning today and ending Friday (April 30-May 4) and touched down at Dhaka at 9am and was to continue on leave to New Delhi, India.
Wing Commander Surasak Sukbang, Squadron 603 commander, led the training, he said.
The ATR72-500 aircraft is a twin-engine turboprop short-haul regional airliner built by the French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR. The RTAF has commissioned four ATR72-500 aircraft since 2009, each having a 30 passengers capacity.
