BANGKOK • Thailand's palace website crashed yesterday after it released unusually candid pictures of the king's consort in a fighter jet, as well as dressed in combat fatigues together with him and the royal poodle.

The pictures of King Maha Vajiralongkorn's consort, 34-year-old Major-General Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi, were released along with her official biography.

A palace official said the website was being fixed because of the volume of traffic. The palace has a policy of not making comments to the media.

The king named Maj-Gen Sineenat, a former nurse and his bodyguard, as Royal Noble Consort on his birthday last month. It was the first such appointment in almost a century, long before the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.

Some of the pictures are in the usual royal tradition, with Maj-Gen Sineenat wearing Thai dress and sitting at the king's feet.

But she is also pictured in the cockpit of a fighter jet and wearing a grey camouflage-patterned jacket at the controls of a light aircraft.

Some pictures show Maj-Gen Sineenat and the king holding hands while one shows them both in green combat fatigues with the royal pet dog.

Maj-Gen Sineenat's appointment as consort came after the king married a former flight attendant and deputy head of his personal guard force, Suthida Tidjai, 41, and made her queen just days before his coronation in May.

REUTERS