Bloody Thronomister
It had to happen, courtesy of the Age Newspaper.
Terrified passengers watch themselves crash-land
"PASSENGERS aboard a Thai Airlines flight that fishtailed down a runway at Melbourne Airport after blowing a tyre yesterday said they knew before it landed that something was wrong.
Passenger Michael Hinchey from Wodonga said "it was just a normal approach but from the screen (facing him) you could tell the plane was not in the centre of the runway".
When the plane landed "it was out of control", Mr Hinchey said. "It just went bang and it was like it was on ice. I actually thought we were going to end up in the paddock."
The landing of Thai Airways flight 981 frightened its 253 passengers and caused major disruptions to airports and flights around Australia. Melbourne Airport was closed for two hours following the heavy landing, which also resulted in a small fire in the plane's undercarriage.
Flights about to land had to be diverted and others due to take off were grounded while airport officials made safety checks of runways and cleared debris. Disruption of domestic flights continued until the evening.
The plane swerved as it hit the runway and fishtailed all the way down the runway, Mr Hinchey said. His daughter Jane said: "I was a bit scared. I thought the plane was going to tip over onto one side."
Fred Mills, from Frankston, said: "It was always looking like a rough landing, even a thousand miles out."
"It really hit hard," he said. At the time it was "pretty scary" but the pilot did "a marvellous job" in the circumstances.
Danny Wong, from Dromana, who was nursing his eight-month-old daughter, Coco, said: "It was like he (the pilot) was zig-zagging and over-correcting."
The Hinchey family said passengers found out what had happened after they saw fire engines arriving and spotted smoke. They were kept in the plane for 45 minutes. Their hand luggage was spread over the tarmac and checked by sniffer dogs before they were taken by bus to the terminal.
Thai Airlines spokeswoman Sue Marr said that "crosswinds caused the aircraft to land heavily". Inspections of the plane by engineers were continuing. Passengers due to fly on the plane's 4.20pm flight to Thailand were last night waiting at the airport to learn when they could leave.
A spokesman for Air Services Australia said the airport closure resulted in the diversion or cancellation of 12 flights."