For those of you that haven't been following the news, over the weekend a Thai Airways A330 flying from Guangzhou to Bangkok skid off the runway upon landing. 14 people were injured, though fortunately there were no fatalities. What's rather funny is that Thai Airways attempted to cover up their name and logo on the…
Continue reading: Thai Airways’ attempt at post-accident damage control
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Weird. Should've at least used matching colors or white. Better yet, why not spray paint the plane white to completely remove the livery 😉
@ Kris — “Basically always?” Care to share some recent examples?
JAL 787 that was grounded in Boston magically became all white.
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/print.main?id=5711723
It's not always done, but it's not uncommon. Here's a link to a thread from a.net w/ a picture of the JL 787 that caught fire in BOS, which later had its titles painted over during the grounding:
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/5704882/
I also saw this happen before. Here is a link that shows other planes painted after accidents. However, it kind worked against Thai as a pretty bad image for their brand.
ummm... this actually happens a lot, dont know why you are picking on thai....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2273415/Alitalia-Leased-plane-crash-painted.html
Air Canada got in trouble for doing it for AC646 since it showed they trespassed into an active investigation scene.
Before
After
I would assume this varies by country and the investigating authority? I'd imagine NTSB would throw a fit if someone tried this while the crash site was still under investigation.
The JAL in BOS was grounded and not a crash so I can give it a pass there. The Thai and Alitalia examples are just poor taste and make the airline look worse by showing their priorities.
Casualties typically means both dead and injured.
I agree this is SOP for airlines after a crash.
Nearly everyone on the planet could not identify the plane in the picture as one from Thai airways. Probably only a few flying in and out of BKK could even identify it.
Smart move.
Jon said,
"Nearly everyone on the planet could not identify the plane in the picture as one from Thai airways. Probably only a few flying in and out of BKK could even identify it."
People who are likely to actually fly Thai will absolutely know that design. It's about as unique as they come these days. Not to mention that there are plenty of photos of the plane before they could cover anything and that the name will probably appear below the picture anyway.
Indeed people that either fly Thai or have flown international flights will definitely recognize that it's a Thai branded plane.. that's what branding is for.. simply trying to undo the name by using a black tape isn't really helping much. However, I have seen it before when I was on holiday, that they did the same.
Nonetheless @Lucky I also believe that the reason why they did this is simply because they can. If you look at the Asiana crash at SFO and the Turkish Air crash at AMS... it wasn't possible to this. Given the fact that either the plane was on fire, or that it was shattered in multiple pieces. Also in terms of investigations NTSB etc probably won't allow anything like that to happen, cause it may have an effect on the evidence they need to gather for their investigation.
When you have a look at this Thai a330 it looks more-a-less in tact, so there isn't much of evidence to clear.
I think there maybe some misunderstanding: if Thai Airways start insurance claim process, this aircraft will belong to insurance company and normally will remove logo right after--plane no longer belong to airline.
It is not really a cover up but rather a common process.
Thanks for the chuckle by adding "Now the plane just looks like a picture that Perez Hilton drew all over." 😉