Phuket, Sept. 16 (Reuters): A budget airliner crashed on the Thai resort island of Phuket on Sunday, killing 88 people as it broke up and burst into flames while trying to land in driving rain, a senior official said.
Phuket deputy governor Vorapot Rajsima told newspersons that 42 people were injured, while a hospital official said at least five survivors were seriously injured.
Flight manifests at Phuket airport suggested well over half the 123 passengers on the flight from the Thai capital were foreigners and an Airports of Thailand official in Bangkok said most of the foreigners were Europeans on holiday. There were seven crew members on board.
Eight Britons, eight Thais, five Germans and two Australians were among the 42 known survivors, hospital workers said.
“The plane looks as though it veered off the runway into a hillside,” said Leslie Quahe, a Singaporean pastor who arrived at the scene nearly an hour after the crash.
“I was coming down the hill and saw the smoke from the plane, which had broken into several parts,” Quahe said.
Officials said the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 had broken into two parts on landing on the island, which was hit by the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
The tail section of the One-Two-Go flight lay on the runway and the rest was among the trees lining it.
“I am deeply sorry about this tragic event,” Udom Tantiprasongchai, chairman of Orient Thai Airlines, which operates the low cost airline, promising a full investigation.
Distraught relatives gathered at the airport, on the northwest coast of Thailand’s largest island, desperate for news of loved ones.
Nong Khaonual, a Thai who survived the crash with his wife, said he believed the plane had descended too quickly.
“The airplane was landing in heavy rain. It landed too fast. I have never seen anything like this,” he said in the hospital. “Just before we touched the runway we felt the plane try to lift up and then it skidded off the runway.”
“My wife was half conscious and I dragged her out of the emergency exit. There was a man behind us who was on fire,” he added.
Another survivor, an Irishman named John, described the plane’s attempts to land in atrocious conditions.
“You could tell there was a problem. The plane was flying around trying to land and making strange noises,” said John, who was travelling with a friend who also survived. “The plane was on fire, but I managed to get through.”