A French court has sentenced the ex-chief executive officer of One-Two-Go Airlines (Bangkok Suvarnabhumi), Udom Tantiprasongchai, to four years in jail and handed him a EUR75,000 euro (USD82,600) fine over a 2007 crash at Phuket airport, AFP newswire has reported.
Tantiprasongchai never showed up in the court and was not arrested, despite an international arrest warrant issued. As such, he was tried and sentenced in absentia.
The 2007 crash of a MD-82 HS-OMG (msn 49183) killed 85 passengers and five crew members. Forty people on board survived the crash. The aircraft, flying from Bangkok Don Mueang, crashed during a failed go-around attempt after an aborted landing at Phuket. The investigation revealed multiple safety violations and corruption at the airline.
The families of nine French victims of the crash, who launched the lawsuit, said that the crash "was an accident waiting to happen" given the corporate culture at the airline.
One-Two-Go Airlines was a low-cost subsidiary of Orient Thai Airlines (Bangkok Suvarnabhumi). Following the crash, it continued to operate until 2010, when it was merged into its parent. Orient Thai Airlines itself suspended all operations in September 2018.
