Thai Plane Crash

Sunday Sep 16, 2007

PHUKET, Thailand - A budget airliner packed with foreign tourists crashed on the Thai resort island of Phuket on Sunday, killing 91 people as it broke up and burst into flames while trying to land in heavy rain, officials said.

The remaining 39 people on board the flight from Bangkok survived and were being treated in nearby hospitals for a variety of injuries, Phuket deputy governor Vorapot Rajsima told a news conference.Five passengers were listed as critical, with burns to 60 percent of their bodies. Survivors spoke of atrocious weather conditions as the plane came in to land, with torrential rain lashing the coastal airstrip and bending over trees.Survivors spoke of atrocious conditions as the plane came in to land, with torrential rain and turbulence. Some said they thought the McDonnell Douglas MD-82, operated by Bangkok-based low-cost operator One-Two-Go, was coming in too fast."Just before we touched the runway we felt the plane try to lift up, and it skidded off the runway," Nong Khaonual, a Thai who survived the crash with his wife, told Nation Television in hospital. "My wife was half conscious and I dragged her out of the emergency exit. There was a man behind us and he was on fire."Fire quickly broke out, filling the wreckage of the fuselage with smoke and flames."The guy behind me was kicking at the window. He kept kicking and kicking the window or the door -- whatever it was -- but it wasn't loosening," Millie Furlong, a 23-year-old waitress from British Colombia, told Reuters in the hospital where she had been treated."If it hadn't opened we would have died. It was dark and smoky. I felt like I was going to pass out," Furlong said.Airports of Thailand said there were seven crew and 78 foreigners on board, most of them European holidaymakers. More than 13 million tourists are forecast to visit Thailand this year.Fourteen Thais, eight Britons, five Iranians and four Germans were among the survivors, hospital workers said.Officials said the plane had broken in two when it touched down on the runway, the first glimpse most visitors get of the island dubbed the "Pearl of the Andaman" despite the devastation wrought by the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The tail section of the plane lay on the runway verge. Its nose was buried in trees lining it.

Distraught relatives gathered at the airport, on the northwest coast of Thailand's largest island, desperate for news of loved ones. Foreign tour representatives, waiting to meet tourists at the terminal, were also poring over passenger lists."I'm deeply sorry about this tragic event," Udom Tantiprasongchai, chairman of One-Two-Go parent company Orient Thai Airlines, told reporters in Bangkok.He promised a full investigation and said the pilot, whom he did not identify further, was an experienced foreigner. It is not known whether either pilot was among survivors."Tomorrow the police will set up an investigating committee to find out what actually caused the accident. What we need to do right now is take care of the injured," Udom said.Whatever the outcome, the crash is bound to sharpen fears about the safety of the dozens of low-cost operators that have sprung up across Southeast Asia in the past decade. Despite a number of crashes and scares, most recently in Indonesia, analysts say there is no hard evidence to suggest budget carriers are more accident-prone than full-service operators. Much of the investigation is bound to focus on the weather conditions as the plane was coming in. "You could tell there was a problem. The plane was flying around trying to land. It was making some noises and it was bad rain," an Irish survivor called John told Thailand's ITV channel. "The plane was on fire, but I managed to get through," said John, who was traveling with a friend who also survived. Officials said the airport, which serves international and domestic flights, was expected to re-open on Monday.

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