A fully booked Nok Air flight from Lampang airport has been cancelled after a door could not be securely locked.
A Nok Air ATR turboprop. File photo taken in June 2013. (Photo by Boonsong Kositchotethana)
Airport ground staff and pilots of Flight DD8505 bound for Bangkok's Don Mueang cancelled the departure on Friday after failing to fix the problem with the left rear door. The 90-minute flight was scheduled to leave the airport at 11.35am.
Passengers were asked to get off the plane and staff worked out substitute plans.
Some of the passengers filled two vans provided by the airline so they could take another Nok Air flight to the capital from nearby Chiang Mai airport while others opted to wait for the next flight at Lampang airport.
Ruangyuth Nittayanont, director of the Lampang airport, said the incident was a first for Nok Air, which had been offering services from the northern city for four months.
According to flight data, the daily service uses a ATR 42 or ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop short-haul regional airliner built by the French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR.