Underwater Obstacles as you approach Suvarnabhumi

[Big Boy]

I flew into Suvarnabhumi on Thursday by a route that I've never used before. The plane passed the airport on the right, flew out to sea, did a u-turn and returned to land at Suvarnabhumi.

As we went out to sea, I could see a series of small (man-made???) islands with underwater tentacles. There were quite a few of these beasties. I've tried to find them on Google Earth, but that part of the sea has been pixelated out. I'm curious - does anybody know what they are please?

[PeteC]

Just a guess is it's where treated sewage wastewater is discharged into the sea, after it's pumped from the treatment plant on the mainland. Hopefully treated?!

[Nereus]

They may be air navigation aids, such as VOR / NDB or what is called the "outer marker" on an instrument approach. From the air the approach to Suvarnabhumi from the south is not very far from the coast, so limited ground area for such equipment.

Bear in mind that an aircraft 10 or 15 miles out still has several thousand feet of altitude and needs to know it is lined up and on the correct glide path.

It is only at this time of year when the prevailing winds are from the north and north east that an approach from the south is in use.

[Nereus]

Just a guess is it's where treated sewage wastewater is discharged into the sea, after it's pumped from the treatment plant on the mainland. Hopefully treated?!

Just going on the smell that sometimes permeates my Condo, the main discharge is into Phrakhanong Klong!

[Big Boy]

Thanks for trying guys, but neither explanation sounds likely. There were quite a few of them, and randomly set over quite an area. Why lift them out of the sea before discharging sewerage?

Again, the islands seemed too random to be navigation aids.

My guess was that somebody was going to say something about underwater cables. It sort of reminded me of the cable junction in the first Jaws movie, where the shark died.

[J.J.B.]

Not sure about Navigation Aids, the enroute chart shows nothing in the sea and with VHF being line if sight you’d probably want as much elevation as you could get, wouldn’t you? I know they are transmitting to an aircraft receiver but on approach they wouldn’t be as high as in the cruise.

https://aip.caat.or.th/2019-12-05-AIRA ... en-GB.html

[J.J.B.]

There are loads of cables and junction boxes off the sea of the UK, visible on approach over the south east coast. These are linked to the large offshore wind farms that have been built in the past decade.

[HHTel]

I flew into Suvarnabhumi on Thursday by a route that I've never used before. The plane passed the airport on the right, flew out to sea, did a u-turn and returned to land at Suvarnabhumi.

I think that's quite common. I've tracked the last three visitors from the UK and from Korea. All 3 passed over the gulf before doing a U-turn. I did make the comment "A little further and you could have parachuted into the garden and saved the taxi fare!"

[caller]

Flying into Swampy from Krabi on 8th December, we flew back out to sea after what I thought was lining up for a final approach, where we did what seemed a big loop to head back in again. I only noticed because of the in-flight seat back tracking.

[Big Boy]

HaHa, but did you notice the little islands with underwater tentacles?

[caller]

HaHa, but did you notice the little islands with underwater tentacles?

Couldn't even see the sea! The plane was huge and we were sat on the inside aisle over the wings. Went down there on the usual Thai Smile smaller 3 seats either side of the aisle airbus, like on the route to Khon Kaen, came back on a colossus!

[Nereus]

Why lift them out of the sea before discharging sewerage?

Perhaps if you gave a better description it might help. Lift what out of the sea? Is the man made structure an island or some structure that has been placed there, or a dirt island? How can you tell from a passenger aircraft that part of it has been lifted out of the sea?

Are they fishing platforms used with retrievable nets?

You must have a different version of Google Earth than I have as the resolution over the sea does not shown any pixelated areas.

Maybe the Chinese have started building structures like in the South China Sea.

[Nereus]

I flew into Suvarnabhumi on Thursday by a route that I've never used before. The plane passed the airport on the right, flew out to sea, did a u-turn and returned to land at Suvarnabhumi.

I think that's quite common. I've tracked the last three visitors from the UK and from Korea. All 3 passed over the gulf before doing a U-turn. I did make the comment "A little further and you could have parachuted into the garden and saved the taxi fare!"

I already posted the reason:

It is only at this time of year when the prevailing winds are from the north and north east that an approach from the south is in use.

The airport runways are just 10 degrees off running north and south, and everything that flies has to land into the wind.

[Big Boy]

In red

Why lift them out of the sea before discharging sewerage?

Perhaps if you gave a better description it might help. Lift what out of the sea? The tentacles were connected just below the water line, and I could see they were deeper the further away from the island they got, Is the man made structure an island or some structure that has been placed there, or a dirt island? At first, I thought they were boats moored close to each other. One was always twice the length of the other. It was when I saw the tentacles attached that I decided there were islands. Because of the similarity of each set of islands, I concluded they were probably man made. I have no idea what the material of construction was,How can you tell from a passenger aircraft that part of it has been lifted out of the sea? One of the suggestions was sewerage discharge. As each set of islands had the tentacles attached, and the further away from the island they got, the deeper they got, my conclusion was, to be sewerage discharge, the sewerage would have to be lifted up to the islands.

Are they fishing platforms used with retrievable nets? I considered this, but it did not really seem logical, given the spread of the tentacles.

You must have a different version of Google Earth than I have as the resolution over the sea does not shown any pixelated areas. I agree, I looked again earlier this morning, and the pixelation was not there - maybe a gremlin in my computer's display.

[Edit] When not pixelated, I still could not see the islands.

Maybe the Chinese have started building structures like in the South China Sea. Possibly

I will try to draw on my computer what I saw and post it (I'm not much of an artist though )

[Big Boy]

OK, my bad attempt at drawing what I saw The tentacles were clearly connected to the islands, got deeper as they moved away from the islands until they disappeared.

Obstacle.png (36.83 KiB) Viewed 808 times