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88 Die In Thai Airliner Crash

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By AUDRA ANG, The Associated Press

Published: September 17, 2007

PHUKET, Thailand - A plane carrying foreign tourists crashed Sunday as it tried to land in stormy weather on the resort island of Phuket, engulfing some passengers in flames while others kicked out windows to escape the smoke-filled cabin. At least 88 people were killed.

The budget One-Two-Go Airlines flight was carrying 123 passengers and seven crew members from the capital Bangkok to Phuket when it skidded off the runway in driving wind and rain, officials said. It then ran through a low retaining wall and split in two.

Survivors described their escape amid chaos, smoke and fire.

'As soon as we hit, everything went dark and everything fell,' said Mildred Furlong, 23, a waitress from British Columbia, Canada. The plane started filling with smoke, and fires broke out, she said. A passenger in front of her caught fire, while one in the back kicked out a plane window.

It was not clear how many of the 78 foreigners on board died, but they included tourists from France, Germany, Israel, Australia and Britain. The government issued a list saying nearly 30 foreigners had survived.

About 60 bodies were retrieved quickly, but it took hours to get the other bodies out. Parts of the twisted plane lay smoking at the side of the runway, while officials wearing masks carried bodies wrapped in white sheets to an airport storage building.

Survivors said the plane landed hard and was out of control.

'Our plane was landing, you can tell it was in trouble, because it kind of landed then came up again the second time,' said John Gerard O'Donnell of Ireland, speaking from his hospital bed.

'I came out on the wing of the plane ... the exit door, it was kind of crushed and I had to squeeze through. And saw my friend, he was outside. He just got out before me. And next thing, it really caught fire, then I just got badly burned, my face, my legs, my arms.'

Piyanooch Ananpakdee, a coordinator at Bangkok Phuket Hospital, said some survivors told her passengers stepped on each other as they fled the smoke-filled plane.

She said there were five people in critical condition at her hospital, including a British woman with burns over 60 percent of her body and another person with broken ribs. Many of the injured also had broken legs and similar injuries from jumping from the aircraft, she said.

Charnsilp Wacharajira said some of the victims were killed by traumatic injuries to the head, not burns from the fire, indicating they died from the impact of the crash.

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