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An airliner carrying 130 people crashed on
landing in heavy rain on the Thai resort island of Phuket, killing
most on board, Deputy Governor Vorapoj Rattasrima said. Passengers
included tourists from Britain, Australia, France and the
Netherlands.
The budget-carrier One Two Go Airline Co.
flight was a McDonnell Douglas Corp. MD-82 carrying 123 passengers,
five cabin crew and two pilots, Vutichai Singhamanee, director of
Thailand's Civil Aviation Authority's flight standards bureau,
said in a telephone interview.
"More people are dead than survived,"
Thailand's Minister of Tourism and Sports Suvit Yodmani said in a
telephone interview in Bangkok. "We can't identify nationalities
yet. This will certainly affect our tourism."
Phuket is Thailand's premier tourist
destination and one of Asia's most popular with international
visitors. Earnings from tourism accounted for 7 percent of the
Southeast Asian nation's $195 billion economy last year. A tsunami
in December 2004 killed about 5,400 people and left nearly 3,000
missing in southern Thailand's islands, including Phuket.
One Two Go is owned by Orient Thai
Airlines Co. The flight, OG269, left the capital Bangkok at 3:45
p.m., Chaisak Ungsuwan, director-general of Thailand's Air
Transportation Department, told TITV television.
Dead, Hospitalized
Of those on the flight, 88 people are
dead, Sasi Pong, a Thai Red Cross official, said in an interview at
Phuket's Watchira Hospital. Of 42 people hospitalized, 25 are
foreigners, she said.
"About 60 of the bodies were very badly
burnt and have not yet been identified," she said.
The crash was "probably weather related,"
said Vutichai of the Civil Aviation Department. "We don't know if
it was pilot error, we are investigating. Maybe it was a microburst
windshear."
A German foreign ministry spokesman said
that four Germans had survived the crash and were being treated in
hospital, but had no information about the total number of Germans
on board.
A British foreign ministry spokesman
confirmed that there were British nationals on board, but had no
further information. U.K. Ambassador Quinton Quayle was en route to
Phuket.
Six Israelis were on the plane, the daily
Haaretz newspaper reported, citing the airline's passenger list. A
hospital worker in Phuket said two were being treated at a medical
facility, the newspaper reported, adding that the other four are
feared dead.
One French national is confirmed dead, and
a further two are injured, the French foreign ministry said in a
statement.
Turbulent Conditions
Windshear, which causes turbulent air
conditions, has been a significant cause of aircraft accidents.
Thailand's Ministry of Public Health said
87 people were dead and 43 injured, citing a preliminary count.
"The problem now is we don't have enough
cooled morgues," a faxed health ministry statement said. "Right
now, the dead bodies are being kept at the airport's conference
room."
The airplane broke in two and caught on
fire after skidding and hitting an embankment following its landing
in a heavy rainstorm, Channel 7 news reported. Television images
showed the aircraft in pieces with smoke billowing from it. Many of
the dead were still strapped into their seats, the television
report cited eyewitnesses as saying.
Treating Injured
Bangkok Hospital Phuket was treating 28
people injured in the crash, marketing director Narueporn Sinto
said in an interview. They included Thais, Australians, Irish,
Canadians, French, Israelis, Iranians, Germans and British, she
said. Phuket International Hospital has treated 11 people,
including Swedish and Dutch, said nurse Thananda Chanakul.
Phuket International Airport will be
closed until 7 a.m. tomorrow morning, the Civil Aviation
Department's Vutichai said.
Today's accident may be Thailand's
deadliest air disaster since a Thai Airways International Pcl
Airbus A310-200 crashed while attempting to land in a rainstorm at
Surat Thani airport in southern Thailand in December 1998, killing
101 of the 146 people on board.
One Two Go Airline Chief Executive Officer
Udom Tantiprasongchai said the company is investigating the crash
and is ready to take responsibility. The insurance company will
contact those affected by the accident, he said.
"I have contacted our insurance firm in
London and we will take full responsibility on this," Udom said in
an interview. "We will set up a hotline soon."
One Two Go has set up the following
hotline numbers for enquiries about passengers on the flight:
+662-504-3641; +662- 504-3227; +662-535-7662; +66 85-918-3422;
+66-85-911-5092; +66- 85-155-4622.
Source:
Bloomberg
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