General Aviation Safety in Phuket

5th Oct 2010

Phuket is a Mecca for general aviation (GA), which covers small, single engine aircraft, more often than not flown by business people.

And rightly so. The island has been built on the back of aircraft, mainly big, commercial aircraft bringing millions of tourists here.

The Phuket Airpark has been going for two years. On its first anniversary in January last year it held a successful air show. Situated in a quiet area of the East coast, the club is has a runway of 580 m. on 110 rai of land. Foreigners can now registered their aircraft and convert them to Thai licences to fly their 'planes out of the Phuket Airpark.

We also have the Phuket Flying Club and the Thai Flying Club. There is even, now, the Laos Flying Club and Sport Aviation, Laos's first GA club.

Phuket even has 132 ultralight aircraft, and growing. There are several times of ultralight aircraft, but the most common description would be a hang glider-style wing, below which is suspended a three wheeled carriage which carries the engine and aviators. These aircraft are controlled by pushing against a horizontal control bar in roughly the same way as a hang glider pilot flies.

All of which begs the question: how safe is GA? Well, according to Bruce Landsberg, president of the Airline Owners and Pilots Association, Air Safety Foundation in the United States, very safe. He argues the following: business jets, in most cases, match or exceed air carrier safety; turboprops are good, but not as good as jets; flights in piston aircraft for business are safe, the only difference being pilot capability and personal flying, the type you would generally see around Phuket.

Mr. Landsberg said it is misleading to state, as has been the case in the United States, at least, that GA's safety record is 40 times! Worse than airliners. He does concede that the number of accidents in non-commercial flights is still high but he argues that individual GA pilots should continue to be allowed to make decisions about how safe their flight will be as long as there is no interference with airliners and little risk to people on the ground.

Having said that the regulations for each country are different. The Department of Civil Aviation sets and enforces the rules here.

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