Four airlines divert routes due to smog in Thai North

BANGKOK, March 23 (TNA) - Four commercial airlines were forced to divert flights and could not land at Chiang Mai Airport in the Thai North on early Saturday morning due to heavy smog in the province and nearby areas, caused by forest fires and outdoor burning. The incidents were reported by Aeronautical Radio of Thailand Co., Ltd., acknowledging that the four airliners include Air Asia, which departed from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital, to Chiang Mai as it was forced to divert its flight and landed at Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport instead. The three others include Thai Air Asia from Don Mueang to Chiang Mai, Thai Airways International or THAI, the national flag carrier, and the Bangkok Airways, both heading from Suvannabhumi International Airport to Chiang Mai and were forced to divert their flights and landed at Suvannabhumi International Airport eventually. Thai Air Asia also diverted its flight and landed back at Don Mueang. The Meteorological Department later forecast that visibility in Chiang Mai should improve this early afternoon, but Chiang Mai Airport has switched on lights at the maximum step to facilitate all planes landing there. Regarding a fire which broke out on March 16 at a garbage disposal site in Bangkok's adjacent Samut Prakan(สมุทรปราการ) Province, where chemical substances believed to have been dumped by factories were detected, firefighters said the blaze still covered about 20 rai, out of a total of about 100 rai of the garbage dump site (2.5 rai = 1 acre). About 300 officials from more than 20 government agencies have involved in the operation to contain the massive fire with the help of helicopters, used to spray water to help stop the fire, which the officials expected could be put out by on Saturday evening. (TNA)