Investigate Thailand's Udom Tantiprasongchai.

Primary Evidence: Flying While Corrupt

1. Ordering the Coverup: Orient Thai/One-Two-Go COO copies Udom Tantiprasongchai (the CEO) on this email to the flight scheduler detailing the falsification of the pilots' work hour records.
2. Roster Fraud: This spreadsheet with false work hours was submitted to the NTSB, the "ghost" writers of the crash report for the Thai government.
3. Thai CAA admits to receiving fraudulent hours: The Deputy Director General of the Thai CAA acknowledges the receipt of false paperwork and vastly excessive flight hours. No action was taken against the airline or management for the fraud, nor was the NTSB informed of the fraud (until we did).
4. Illegally Excessive Work Hours: These are the actual scheduled hours for Captain Arief and First Officer Montri during August and September. They show scheduled flight hours vastly in excess of the ICAO maximums of 100 work hours and Thai maximums of 110 hours per 30 days. After the crash of OG269 in September, excessive pilot work hours continued as shown by this December company rpster.
5. Orient Thai/One-Two-Go Checkride Fraud: The Captain was on leave. He is not paid for the month. Yet he approved the checkrides of 4 pilots,Natsir, Purwanic, Hendrarto, and Haryanto.
6. Temporary Grounding: Thailand's Civil Aviation Department temporarily revoked One-Two-Go's AOC July 21, 2008 - December 5, 2008 for grossly unsafe business practices.
7. International Flight With Passengers Without an AOC: As shown here on October 11, 2008 One-Two-Go flew Hong Kong to Bangkok without an AOC regularly.
8. No Change in Airline Management or Oversight Authority: Udom Tantiprasongchai and Cho Ting Tsang remain in operational control of Orient Thai and One-Two-Go. Thai Civil Aviation Authorities, Director General Chaisek amd Deputy Director General Vuttichai remain in their aviation oversight and investigatory positions in Thailand.

NTSB Report (released on FOIA Sept 2009)

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) conducted an investigation and wrote a report for the Thai Government. Accessed via a Freedom of Information Act request, it is posted here on the "Investigate Udom" website. The NTSB determined that wind shear DID NOT cause the crash. They found the flight crew was untrained and unskilled. They found that no one was flying the aircraft at the time it struck an embankment on the side of the runway. Further, they found the flight crew was vastly over flying time limits for the week and for the month. These are some of the systemic causes of the crash. Another way of looking at the cause is indifference to human life and suffering and hubris.

One fact NTSB did not document was the fraudulent flight data NTSB received from the Thai government and Orient Thai. We already knew the flight hours were fraudulent from watching the Australian expose and seeing the head of the Thai government's aviation department agree. With a bit of help from friends, we were able to obtain the true flight hours and provide them to NTSB. This information changed the course of the investigation for NTSB and makes clear the deliberate duplicity of the Thai government and Udom Tantiprasongchai, the CEO of Orient Thai/One-Two-Go Airlines.

For nearly a year after the crash nothing at Orient Thai changed. Udom continued fly aircraft with pilots who falsified their check ride certificates; pilots who were flying hours beyond the legal limits; and pilots who were inadequately trained and supervised. Eventually, the US Federal Aviation Authority insisted some penalty and retraining be applied. Thailand temporarily revoked Orient Thai's One-Two-Go Aircraft Operating Certificate. The "retraining" included senior members of the Thai government and was conducted in exotic Spain rather than local Hong Kong. During the final month without an Aircraft Operating Certificate, Orient Thai's One-Two-Go resumed flying passengers internationally. You or someone you know may have been on their aircraft while officially grounded by the Thai government!

More recently, the Thai Government gave Udom Tantiprasongchai yet another Aircraft Operating Certificate for yet another budget airline called Thai Air. Unfortunately, one must wonder if the name isn't an attempt to confuse the budget-conscious tourist into believing he has booked a cheap flight on the trusted, higher quality airline named Thai Airways.

Update: Here is the Thai version of the crash report, including some of the NTSB material and ending with suggested edits from the NTSB.

The humorous part? The "author" of the report is Vutichai Singhamany, Director General of the Thai Civil Aviation Authority. Vutichai is the guy who takes the bribes from Udom (a.k.a. wins golf games and gets all expense paid trips to Spain). He's also the guy you can see being *surprised* by the fraudulent roster data on the Australian expose. (But then we all watched as Vutichai hadn't to keep those records from the investigators and the public.)

Thank you for your support over these years. Safe travels.

Here is what I have very painfully learned: If a country doesn't have a free press, then don't rely on its infrastructure: airlines, trains, security, police or hospitals.

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See the NTSB crash report and other NTSB materials: NTSB material

Learn more: Flying While Corrupt Details

Press Release from the Jones and Collins families

See the Petition

See Congressman Frank's letter to Secretaries Clinton and LaHood