Pilot reports of dangerous kom loy in the skies

 | Tue 12 Nov 2019 15:35 ICT

CityNews – 12th November 2019, the Facebook page of KaraTe Tey Ratchanon posted a photo yesterday, 11th November, of flying lanterns in the sky as he was flying above Chiang Mai.  His caption was, “Every year there is talk about flying lanterns, but as this was the daytime I thought there should be no problem.  However, I found many of them from 13,000 feet (3 lanterns) and when at 2,800 feet, they were to the left, right, above and below the aircraft.”

“Thai airways aircraft TG104 (the flight before his flight),” he continued, “found 5 – 6 lanterns and had to hold landing for nearly 20 minutes while waiting to clean up the fallen lanterns on runways.”

“As this is daytime, there are still a lot of them, how about at night time?” he asked. “If it gets stuck in the engine, those who release it, doing nice selfies, could they imagine if their beloved ones are on board?  Besides that, how about these flying lanterns falling onto houses or the forest and causing fire?”

Some reporters have reported today that although authorities in Chiang Mai have announced strict measures concerning releasing flying lanterns, some people and tourists still violate the rules.  From now on, Chiang Mai municipality will monitor the situation more strictly including forbidding the selling of flying lanterns in restricted areas.