Thai Airways International Flight 601
Sud Aviation Caravelle III · Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error and bad weather
From Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND) to Don Mueang International Airport (DMK)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 24 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 80
- Survivors
- 56
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 3
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Sud Aviation Caravelle III
- Aircraft type
- Sud AVIATION CARAVELLE
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- HS-TGI
- Operator
- Thai Airways International
- Onboard fatalities
- 24
- Route
- From Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)To Don Mueang International Airport (DMK)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 30 June 1967, Thai Airways International Flight 601, a Sud Aviation Caravelle III crashed into the sea on landing at the former Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong, in a typhoon. The aircraft was on a flight from Haneda Airport in Japan to Don Mueang Airport in Thailand. The two stopovers were at Songshan Airport in Taiwan and Kai Tak Airport in British Hong Kong.
Accident
Thai Airways International Flight 601 took off from Taipei Songshan Airport on an hour-long flight to Kai Tak Airport. The Sud Aviation Caravelle had 80 people aboard: 73 passengers and 7 crew. With the plane on ILS approach to runway 31 at Kai Tak, the crew became preoccupied trying to make visual contact with the ground. When trying to find the ground, they failed to notice that the aircraft had descended below the decision height of 415 ft. The crew made an abrupt heading change (while already 80 ft below the glide slope), and then entered a high-speed descent. The aircraft crashed into the sea, killing 24 passengers.
Investigation and cause
Probable cause
The probable cause of the accident was pilot error, specifically the pilots not noticing that their aircraft had descended below the glide slope. The presence of strong wind shear and downdrafts as a result of then-present Typhoon Anita was also a factor in the accident. However, there were no means of detecting such weather phenomena at the time of the accident. Further factors included:
The pilots did not adhere to Thai Airways procedure for a captain-monitored Instrument approach in bad visibility.
Captain Thorsen did not monitor the approach adequately.
The abrupt heading change after the aircraft descended below their minimum altitude may have exacerbated the high rate of descent.
Downdrafts and wind shear may have contributed to the height loss that resulted from this mishandling.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Thai Airways International Flight 601” (revision 1374199420, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Thai Airways International Flight 601
- Revision
- 1374199420 · 2026-09-10 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q7709097
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Thai Airways International Flight 601" (page 28088088, revision 1374199420)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.