threatened to suspend services within three days. After no payment, it delivered on its threat. TOT was subsequently able to negotiate with Samart to restart the service. Airports of Thailand Purging of AoT management A week after Saprang hinted at a reshuffle of AoT top management, AoT President Chotisak Asapaviriya was forced to resign, citing health reasons, while the Directors of Suvarnabhumi Airport and AoT Commercial Operations were dismissed. Police Commissioner General Seripisut Temiyavej was appointed as an AoT Director. Suvarnabhumi Airport As AoT Chairman, Saprang spearheaded an effort to reopen Don Mueang Airport in parallel with the newly opened Suvarnabhumi Airport, despite objections from the Civil Aviation Department, airlines, and internal studies within Airports of Thailand. Sixty airlines threatened to halt flights to Thailand if they were forced to move back to Don Mueang airport. Saprang also refused to authorize urgent repairs on the airport tarmac, despite warnings from engineers. Karun Chandrarangsu, president of the Engineering Institute of Thailand noted, "Suvarnabhumi is like a patient in a coma who continues to suffer from severe bleeding. Stopping the blood flow now is more urgent and important than debating what caused the injury." The Engineering Institute of Thailand sent a formal warning to AoT in November 2006 about the urgent need to drain water from beneath the tarmac, and noted that immediate action should be taken. "The AOT did nothing about the problem", Suebsak Promboon of the EIT noted. "The situation might not have become this bad if the water had been drained then." Suebsak Promboon, a senior foundation engineer and a member of the Tortrakul Yomnak-led airport tarmac inspection panel, accused the AOT of refusing to take any actions to solve the problems at the airport. The airport faced ongoing operational challenges, including a computer virus that shut down the automated luggage bomb-scanning system in June 2007. A study by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) released in July 2007 found the airport unsafe, citing numerous spots where checked passengers can meet people who have not passed through security checkpoints. Serious security gaps at Suvarnabhumi Airport became known to the public beginning in early 2007. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) found that there were many spots in the passenger terminal where checked passengers can meet people who have not passed through security checks and could receive unchecked objects and then carry them on board aircraft. The IATA also suggested