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My wife is from Laos. Anyone fly this airline? Her father has flown with them from Bangkok I believe. Not sure about their safety record.
Looks like the pilots lost control in a windstorm related to a typhoon. Possible wind sheer accident? I can't imagine Lao Airlines planes aren't equipped with the proper radar for avoiding storms. I always liked the ATRs, but I know carriers like to keep them in warmer climates due to deicing issues (American Eagle 4184).
My wife is from Laos. Anyone fly this airline? Her father has flown with them from Bangkok I believe. Not sure about their safety record.
Looks like the pilots lost control in a windstorm related to a typhoon. Possible wind sheer accident? I can't imagine Lao Airlines planes aren't equipped with the proper radar for avoiding storms. I always liked the ATRs, but I know carriers like to keep them in warmer climates due to deicing issues (American Eagle 4184).
49 souls on board, all presumed dead. RIP.
It was actually an ATR 72-600 that crashed, which is also the variant of model that fell out of the sky over Indiana and Cuba. The Reuters report said that the plane had just came off the production line in March, so it was the latest and greatest. It is now reported that the plane ended up in the river. I'm curious if the pilots attempted to ditch or if that just happened to come down there.
The ATR actually has a decent radar onboard, more than enough to get around rain, storms, hurricanes (eh...ok) etc.
As a guy who's flown through a hurricane (outer bands of Fey in 08) they're oddly made up when you're not towards the mass. The pieces that get thrown off from the eye are actually lots of small, highly volatile storm concentrations (lots of yellow and red on the radar). You can dodge most of the cells, but expect some decent bumps going through any you can't get around or over...the storm was a little over an hour off the coast of FL when we were chugging through the weather...When we landed, the plane had a minor mechanical failure, and a good buddy of mine ended up flying her home...they were limited to 25,000 feet (right in the middle of the storm) for the entire route...he thanks me routinely for that experience.
After losing two colleagues on developing country airlines (E-W African flights), and several close calls flying N-S in Latin America, I always return to Europe (or the US) to make these connections instead of flying an all-developing country airline.
They simply do not have the same safety and maintenance standards as airlines that land in Europe and the US.
I don't care how new the plane is.
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