by Vu Kim Chung
8-6-2001
A Thai Airways Boeing 777 carrying 307 passengers and 19 crew was forced to make an emergency landing in Vietnam after a fuel leak and no one was hurt. The airliner made the unscheduled landing at the Da Nang International Airport in central Vietnam airport at 12.15am on June 6, 2001 after a fuel pipe broke.
"When the aircraft landed, there was no fire," a Vietnamese aviation official said. "This was the first accident with Thai Airways in Da Nang." He said all the passengers and crew were evacuated safely.
The aircraft had been en route from Taipei to Bangkok and a large volume of fuel had spilled on to the runway.
The airport official said all passengers and crew left for Bangkok later that same morning aboard another Thai Airways aircraft sent in from Thailand. He said the damaged 777 was still in Da Nang.
Da Nang, about 700 kilometres south of the capital Hanoi, is Vietnam's third international airport after Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. It currently receives direct flights from Hong Kong and Bangkok.