Sixty confirmed dead in Thai plane crash

A passenger plane filled with foreign tourists crashed today in heavy rain on Thailand’s tourist island of Phuket, leaving at least 60 dead, officials said.

Officials at the scene said the plane crashed in bad weather, skidded off the runaway and broke into two parts. Survivors described a chaotic situation, trying to escape from windows as fires and smoke consumed the plane.

The budget One-Two-Go Airlines domestic flight OG269 was carrying 123 mostly foreign passengers and five crew members to Phuket from the Thai capital, Bangkok, local television station TITV reported.

Phuket’s Deputy Governor Worapot Ratthaseema told The Associated Press that officials have counted at least 60 bodies, which have been laid out in airport building.

“At least 60 people have been confirmed dead and 43 have been hospitalised,” Worapot said. He said the remaining passengers were still considered missing.

Witnesses described a horrific situation.

“I saw passengers engulfed in fire as I stepped over them on the way out of the plane,” survivor Parinwit Chusaeng, who was slightly burned, said on the Nation TV channel. “I was afraid that the airplane was going to explode, so I ran away.”

Parinwit said he looked back and fires raging in the front and back of the plane. “I saw the plane in flames and there was a lot of smoke,” he said.

Chaisak Angsuwan, director general of the Air Transport Authority of Thailand, said weather played a part in the crash.

“The visibility was poor as the pilot attempted to land. He decided to make a go-around but the plane lost balance and crashed,” he said. “It was torn into two parts.”

Anchalee Wanitthepphabutr, chief of Phuket’s provincial administrative authority, said on TITV that the plane had been in flames.

The dead and injured were being taken from the plane to several Phuket hospitals, Anchalee said.

One-Two-Go is owned by Orient Thai Airways.