THAI pilot aborted landing 'over safety'

A Thai Airways International pilot aborted his first attempt to land at Haneda airport in Tokyo last week due to safety concerns, the airline said Wednesday.

Ft Lt Pratana Patanasiri, vice-president in charge of aviation safety, said the pilot of flight TG660 Bangkok-Tokyo (Haneda) decided to go around again because he could not see the runway well after he was cleared to land as the Boeing 747-400 aircraft made its final approach on April 11.

The decision conformed with pilots' security guidelines.

Air traffic controllers at Haneda then assigned a new runway and the plane landed safely, he said.

The flight left Suvarnabhumi airport at 1pm with 384 passengers and crew on board and arrived at Haneda at about 9.10pm.

Japan's Mainichi Shimbun reported the aborted landing on Tuesday.

It quoted Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism as reporting that an alarm notified the pilots of the aircraft's unusual loss of altitude when the plane was still around 8 kilometres from the airport and only 170 metres above ground.

Pilots of other airlines say planes are normally 350m or higher at this point before landing at the airport.

The pilot may have been mistaken or confused about the aircraft's position in relation to the runway, the Japanese ministry said.

The safety board is investigating details of the incident, Japanese media reported.