Summary T'way Air flight TW172 faced safety issues, resulting in an hour-long flight back to Singapore and a 21-hour delay for passengers. T'way Air has experienced previous delays and safety concerns, prompting special inspections and ordered safety measures. The incident with flight TW172 adds to T'way Air's recent history of technical problems, attracting attention from aviation safety authorities.
This story is a first for me, as it started out to be a celebration of T'way Air's first flight from South Korea to Rome, but while researching that one, a more urgent story about T'way Air popped up . Today, a T'way Air flight from Singapore to Seoul departed from Singapore, but within the hour, it was back where it had started, and passengers were looking at a lengthy delay waiting for a replacement aircraft. What happened to flight TW172? According to tracking data from Flightradar24, T'way Air (T'way) flight TW172 departed Singapore Changi Airport on August 11, 2024, at 02:36 for Seoul Incheon International Airport (ICN), where it was scheduled to land at 09:55.
The aircraft was a 2009 Airbus A330-300, registration HL8502 and MSN 1065, which has recently operated routes to Sydney (SYD), Zagreb (ZAG), Sapporo (CTS), Ulaanbaatar (UBN) and Bishkek (FRU). As the map shows, the aircraft never really got going towards Seoul Incheon, flying some sort of holding pattern over Indonesia and Malaysia before returning to Singapore Changi just over one hour after takeoff. South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that T'way officials said the A330-300 was carrying 285 passengers and had returned to Changi Airport "due to safety issues.
" After an uneventful landing in Singapore, the A330-300 was checked and declared "unfit for immediate aviation," with a replacement needed to be sent from Seoul to Changi this afternoon. The replacement aircraft flight is expected to depart Singapore at around 23:00 tonight, a delay of close to 21 hours for the passengers now waiting at Changi Airport. T'way is the sixth airline to connect Seoul to Singapore.
T'way said it offered passengers a stay at a hotel near Changi and would provide them with other compensation for their inconvenience. As this event is in its infancy, no news has emerged about the "safety check" or why the A330 needed to be replaced, but hopefully, those details will soon emerge from T'way. More questions for T'way This event follows an eleven-hour delay in June for passengers headed from Seoul Incheon to Osaka Kansai International Airport due to technical issues.
The Korea Times reported that the flight, which was carrying 310 passengers, was due to depart at 12:05, but passengers were later informed the takeoff would be delayed, ultimately not leaving until 23:04. Just a week later, on June 14, the Korea Times reported that South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it "had conducted a special inspection of T'way Air and ordered the airline to implement safety measures by next month." In the previous week, T'way experienced four flight delays that affected hundreds of international passengers on flights between South Korea and Japan and Thailand due to maintenance problems.
We'd love to see you on Instagram - follow us here ! Last week, T'way launched its first flight between Seoul and Rome's Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport, this time with an Airbus A330-200 . The service will operate three times weekly and follows the launch of flights from Incheon to Zagreb in Croatia in May. On August 28, it will inaugurate flights between South Korea and Paris, with flights to Barcelona and Frankfurt starting in the second half of 2024.
Korean Air and Asiana Airlines have agreed to certain divestments to satisfy the EU's competition regulators. When Korean Air's proposed takeover of Asiana Airlines received approval from European regulators, a condition was set that another Korean operator be allowed to operate on those routes. Now it is operating to Zagreb and Rome, T'way is firmly on the radar of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the Korean authorities, so today's incident will likely spark further questions for the low-cost carrier.
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