1. No. I did not identify it. My friend, who was at the time sitting 2 feet away from me, however, did. I checked with him again today to confirm it. He identified the airline from the logo on the tail.
2. I spoke today with a Western news cameraman who was with several other people from the news business on a balcony at the 15th floor of a building in Chidlom. For those of you who are not familiar with Bangkok, this is pretty well smack in the centre of the city.
When I get a chance, hopefully on Friday, I will try to talk with more of the witnesses from that building. They all saw the airplane fly past. Their first thoughts were that they were seeing a terrorist attack. From their vantage point, it appeared the aircraft was indeed below the top of Baiyoke II.
Not including the mast, Baioyoke II is about 1000ft high and roughly 1km from where the plane flew over me.
I think we now have enough evidence to conclude that a Korean Air jet flew straight through the center of Bangkok at roughly 1000ft. No more "allegedly" please.
If you wonder why I am going at this like a bull terrier on a, well, bull terrier, then you have not seen or noticed the number of buildings in central Bangkok that are totally invisible to aircraft at night.
Not only are there many buildings of 15, 20 or more stories, with masts, that lack any functioning illumination, but there are many more, some much taller, either empty carcasses left over from the 1997 crash, or unfinished towers. The abandoned towers are completely unlit. Many of the unfinished buildings are full height and have construction cranes projecting above them, again usually lacking any type of illumination at night.
And if that isn't enough, this morning I had a good look as I passed and the Army base (as well as the surrounding neighbourhoods) over which this jet flew are littered with tall radio masts. If you don't know Bangkok, take it from me, they have lots of tall radio masts.
I did actually consider going to the hotel in Baiyoke II today and asking if anybody had seen the jet but was too busy/hot/tired. It does sound like a faintly horrifying but jolly jaunt for the weekend, however.