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July 7, 2000
BANGKOK (AP) - A speeding homemade rocket fired during a traditional festival in northeastern Thailand approached a passenger airplane as it came into land, airline officials said Thursday. P.B. Air, a private Thai airline, has complained to airport authorities after the projectile startled the pilot of its 75-seat Fokker-28 as it descended June 11 to Roi Et airport, 440 kilometers (275 miles) northeast of Bangkok. "It was a reckless incident that risked others' lives. We have asked for safety measures so that it will not happen again," said Varaporn Srisatchanakul, the airline's public relations officer. The rocket was fired by a group of farmers from a rice field south of the airport. It came within about five or six kilometers (3.1 or 3.8 miles) of the airplane, said Kittichai Sanjalak, the airport director. "If it hit the plane, it could cause an explosion," he said. The rocket festival is an annual fertility rite held during May and June every year at the start of the annual monsoon to bring plentiful rain during the rice-growing season. Hundreds of rockets, up to 2 meters (7 feet) long and with a range of several kilometers (miles) are launched, as villagers compete to see who can fire a rocket the farthest. Kittichai said the provincial airport authority has now asked local officials to inform the airport before any rocket is set off in villages near a flight path. "We have ordered a no-rocket period an hour before take-off and landing and no rockets pointing in the direction of the airport," he said. Theeradej Wongraj, Roi Et province information officer, said the province had campaigned for more safety measures to stop the casualties and damages caused every year on the ground due to poorly made rockets. But he ruled out prohibiting the festival which has been held for generations. |
