Personal Thailand

Qantas list of incidents

July 2nd, 2009 — Airports, Travel Warning

It looks like Qantas have had a few incidents with A330 Airbus aircraft, also from Thailand. But the strange thing they are not on the list of blacklisted companies in Europe or anywhere else. One two go, Phuket air and the Indonesia airline and they had less problems then this. When i read this collections of faults it really make me scared.

Article source: Australian Associated Press

Jan 19, 2004 – A newly acquired Qantas A330-300 flying from Melbourne to Perth is forced to make an emergency landing in Adelaide after fumes leak into cabin, with seven crew members and two of the 274 passengers taken to hospital with nausea-like symptoms.

Aug 21, 2005 – Nine people, including two Australians, are injured during the evacuation of 178 passengers from a Perth-bound Qantas jet in Osaka, Japan, after a smoke sensor was activated in the aircraft’s hold.

Jan-June 2006 – A wasp infestation among Qantas aircraft, particularly A330s, at Brisbane Airport, causes three flights to be aborted during takeoff as well as a number of flight cancellations.

July 24, 2007 – More than 300 passengers are left stranded in Bali when a Bangkok to Melbourne Jetstar flight is forced to divert to Denpasar Airport after an engine failure.

Oct 8, 2008 – Almost 50 people are injured, some seriously, when a Qantas jet, with 303 passengers and a crew of 10 bound from Singapore to Perth, plunges up to 2,000 metres over Western Australia.

Nov 14, 2008 – A Qantas jet carrying 278 passengers from Sydney to Shanghai turns back after a weather radar malfunction on board.

Nov 29, 2008 – A Qantas jet serviced just days earlier and flying from Perth to Singapore has to turn back after the crew is forced to turn off one of its two engines when an engine oil warning light flashes. Qantas says inspections indicated a fault with the engine starter motor.

Dec 5, 2008 – A Qantas jet becomes bogged at Sydney airport as a towbar holding the aircraft fails and two of the jet’s wheels become stuck in the grass beside the taxiway.

Dec 29, 2008 – A Qantas jet flying from Perth to Singapore is forced to return to Perth after the autopilot disconnects at 36,000 feet about 500km northwest of Perth. Air safety authorities say the circumstances were similar to the October incident over WA.

Jan 28, 2009 – An A330 defence aircraft carrying about 80 Australian personnel and supplies to the Middle East is forced to make an emergency landing in Darwin after fumes filled the cabin. Three people were hospitalised and later recovered.

June 9, 2009 – Qantas announces it has received no safety directives for its A330 fleet following the May 31 crash of an Air France A330-200 that killed all 228 people aboard in the Atlantic Ocean.

June 10, 2009 – A fire in the cockpit of a Jetstar A330-300 carrying 186 passengers from Japan to Australia forces the pilot to make an emergency safe landing in Guam.

June 22, 2009 – Thirteen people are injured when a Qantas A330-300 carrying 206 passengers strikes severe turbulence over Borneo on a flight from Hong Kong to Perth.

American couple extorted in Thailand or?

July 1st, 2009 — Corruption, Crimes

The Bangkok Post Spectrum section ran a story about how two Americans said they were abused by Thailand legal system and a dodgy landlord.

I can not write the whole story here but basically it comes down to bad lawyers, bad translators, no interest from the US Embassy, corrupt system and bad luck.

I do not know if they burned down their house themselves or the electric did it. But they should instead of just pay pay pay gone down to Phuket to find out what really happen with the house.

Most of the time when you rent a house the house owner avoids tax and dodge the whole contract. They never take insurance and leave it to the person who rents the house to do it. If you bring this up in court you will see the owner backing down. The problem is when the owner see the couple locked up and in weak state he use it and people around him see a chance to make some money, lawyers included.

I have no idea why they agreed to pay him the money they should just take it to civil court and left the country if they felt they been swindled.

I can not answer if they police wanted extra money but I can tell you at least 10 people that I know in persons that had to pay extra money to the police and I am sure everyone does when they have been living in Thailand for a while.

The American couple have started a donation site to try to get back some of the money they lost and if you want to support them or read the full story you do that here.

http://landoftrials.wordpress.com/

Totally safe to buy land in Thai wife name almost

June 28th, 2009 — Government, Living Here, Property

The land department in Thailand has made clear that they are not planning a crack down on Thai wives and their false statements that they bought the land and not the foreign husbands.

The land department said that they will only check the document if someone makes a complaint (how to get back on your next door neighbor) and if they saw some case in court (problem with the developer forget about it and just take it like a good boy).

So now you can be totally safe or something buying land in your Thai wife’s name

Strong travel warning for Thailands airport and duty free

June 28th, 2009 — Airports, Corruption, Crimes, Travel Warning

Thailand gets another major blow to its tourism industry when some people in the King Power group in the airport together with the Tourist Police and some other underground characters deiced to rip tourists off.

Thailand need to clean up the corruption not only for foreigners but for Thais alike. Thailand can not keep protecting people and just moving them inactive posts. Fire them prosecute them and send them to jail.

After this article published in the Times probably more people will speak out and report that they were scammed as well.

Most people that are scammed by the Police in Thailand never report it since they maybe want to come back to Thailand or they are living here and do not want to be put on the black list.

I saw some online magazines said you need to report this to the Tourist police but not in the airport off course they were in on it. The punishment for shoplifting might be 500 THB and do not do it again you will not even get blacklisted in Thailand. Do not pay they bribes go to the court and media off course and stand up for your rights. Always call your embassy even if they do not do anything you need to tell them where you are.

You can see many foreign magazines and forums have picked up on the story but the Thai newspapers have not written anything about it so far.

Here is the full story from Times.

A British couple who were falsely accused of shoplifting in Bangkok airport and were forced to pay 8,000 pounds in bribes to secure their release are to take legal action for compensation.

Times online reported on Sunday the couple were the victims of an extortion racket that has ensnared other foreign travellers at the airport, which handles most of the 800,000 British visitors to Thailand every year.

Stephen Ingram, 49, and Xi Lin, 45, both technology professionals from Cambridge, were detained by security guards as they went to board Qantas flight QF1 to London on the night of April 25.

They were accused of taking a Givenchy wallet worth 121 pounds from a King Power duty-free shop and were handed over to the police. An official release order from the local Thai prosecutor’s office subsequently conceded there was no evidence against them.

The online claimed they were freed five days later after a frightening ordeal in which they said they were threatened and held against their will at a cheap motel on the airport perimeter until they had handed over the money.

They alleged the bribes were paid to an intermediary named Sunil “Tony” Rathnayaka, a Sri Lankan national in his fifties who works as a “volunteer” interpreter for Thailand’s tourist police

“Our main motivation is to protect other innocent British tourists from being caught up in this nightmare,” said Ingram last week. “We intend to take every legal means to recover our money and obtain justice.”

Last week Rathnayaka admitted in a telephone interview that he had received cash and money transfers amounting to more than 7,000 pounds from the Britons. He said the money was for police bail and for a payment to a figure he called “Little Big Man” who could withdraw the case against them.

“In Thailand everyone knows it’s like that,” he said. “They can go to jail or they can just pay a fine and go home. It is corruption, you know?”

Rathnayaka also agreed that the “bail” — about 4,000 pounds — was never returned to Ingram and Xi. Thai law says bail should be refunded.

In a detailed statement the couple said they were first detained at an airport office of the tourist police and later taken to cells at a police station in an isolated modern building on the fringes of the airport.

Rathnayaka confirmed that he met them in the cells on the morning of Sunday, April 26, and arranged the “bail”. The police kept the couple’s passports. Rathnayaka then escorted Ingram and Xi to the Valentine Resort, a lurid pink motel a few hundred yards from the runways. They were to remain there for four days.

During that time, Rathnayaka warned them not to tell anyone about their plight, especially the British embassy, lawyers, friends, family or the press.

However, on April 27 they sneaked out of the hotel and found their way to the embassy, where they met Kate Dufall, the pro-consul.

According to the couple, she told them the embassy could not interfere with the Thai legal system and put them in contact with Prachaya Vijitpokin, a lawyer.