Suvarnabhumi airport cleared its eastern runway for full use on Wednesday evening, following its partial closure on Sunday night after a Thai Airways plane crashed.
Thai Airways International staff use air floatation equipment to lift and salvage the damaged Airbus A330-300 aircraft on Wednesday, with THAI logo and name blacked out, that skidded off the runway at Suvarnabhumi airport on Sunday night. (Photo by Somchai Poomlard)
Transport Minister Chadchart Suttipunt said the entire runway was reopened at 8.10pm.
Grp Cpt Samai Chanthon, deputy general-manager of the airport, said the reopening came hours after Thai Airways International had hauled its damaged Airbus A330-300 from the crash site.
The reopening of the runway was postponed three times from 6am of Wednesday to noon and then 6pm before it was cleared for safety.
The delay was due to heavy rain on Tuesday night which obstructed attempts to haul off the aircraft.
THAI officials successfully moved the plane out of the spot to a temporary parking space at 3.30pm to clear the way for cleaners and officials on their final check of the runway for use. They used air floatation equipment to lift and salvage the aircraft.
Half of the runway had been closed since THAI flight TG679 from Guangzhou, China, skidded off the runway on Sunday night, injuring 14 passengers. The flight carried 287 passengers, most of them Chinese tourists, and 14 air crew.
Only small aircraft had been allowed to use the eastern runway since Sunday night. The closure delayed at least 1,000 flights.
Initial investigations blamed defective right landing gear for the accident but seperate inquiries by the national carrier and the Department of Civil Aviation are still looking into the cause of the crash.
The department will send the jet's black box to Airbus in Toulouse, France, or its office in Singapore to find out what happened on that night, leading to the crash after the aircraft landed and taxied for 1km before skidding off the runway.
The crash damaged a 1.6 km-long stretch of the runway surface. It was repaired on Monday but was ruled unsafe to use until the plane was towed to a parking spot.
Airports of Thailand Plc estimate damages to the runway at 1 million baht.