The statement was issued by the state-run Radio Thailand Phuket last night, and copied by the national platform of the state news agency National News Bureau of Thailand, but not posted by the Phuket office of the Public Relations Department (PR Phuket).
So far Airports of Thailand Phuket branch also has yet to publish the statement through their own channels.
The statement noted that it was in response to posts on social media. The alarm was raised by Facebook Group ‘Outsider’s Aviation’, and shared by the Phuket Info Center.
Without the social media posts, Airports of Thailand Phuket branch did not recognise the problem.
According to the government reports, Phuket airport “explained the cause of cracks found on the runway. affecting the landing of the aircraft but has repaired the cracked area and allowed to aircraft to land as usual”.
In explaining the problem, the statement only repeated what the social media posts explained: “There is a problem with the runway. making the plane unable to land.”
Similarly, the statement only recognised the flights affected that were already reported thorugh the social media posts.
“Many aircraft have to fly [in holding patterns], such as Qatar Airways B777-300ER, Air Asia A320, NOK AIR B737-800, Azur Air B757-200, etc. There was also an ATR 72-600 of Bangkok Airways that decided to change to land temporarily at Krabi to wait for the situation.
“Now smaller planes like the A320, B737 can still take off,” the statement added.
“After checking at Phuket airport, it was found that at approximately 12:24pm, aircraft could not actually land. A crack was found on Runway 27 [the only runway at Phuket airport] and the air traffic control tower was notified,” the statement said.
Repairs to the runway were conducted, with the runway returning to normal use at approximately 2:15pm.
According to the statement, Weerasak Insaeng, Director of Maintenance at Phuket Airport, admitted that the runway was damaged by cracks, making it impossible for aircraft to land.
“It is in the process of collecting information and analyzing the exact cause, but has completed the preliminary repair of the cracked area and [the runway is] open for aircraft to land as usual,” the statement said.
“The airport already has a plan for permanent runway repairs. which is in the process of being drafted because it will require the closure of the runway for a long time. It’s quite difficult to do because there are flights taking off and landing all the time,” the statement concluded.
A "hole" in the runway caused similar fight delays and safety concerns in May this year.