17/09/07 By Roger J Duyong
PHUKET, Thailand: A budget airliner crashed while trying to land in lashing rain on the resort island of Phuket Sunday, exploding into flames killing at least 88 passengers.
Main newspapers in the region reported that flight manifest at the Phuket airport suggested that more than half of the 123 passengers and crew on board were foreigners, whom airport officials said, were European holidaymakers.
Forty-three known survivors, sustaining injuries and shock were eight Britons, seven Thais and 2 Australians, according to hospital workers attending to the victims.
News Strait Times reported that a Singaporean pastor Leslie Quahe, who had reached the crash scene an hour after the crash, told reporters on the scene that the plane appeared to have veered off the runway into the side of the hill. Pastor Quahe said that he was coming down the hill when he saw smoke coming from the plane, but seconds later the ill-fated plane broke into several parts.
Airport officials said the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 had broken into two parts on impact after landing on the Andaman Sea paradise isle. The island has become well known after it was hit during the 2004 tsunami.
Crumpled and smoking fuselage of the One-Two-Go were visible on all TV images that showed the one of the worst plane crashes in the country.
Fire trucks and emergency workers surrounded the flight that flew in from Bangkok. Parts of the plane could also be seen strewn in trees alongside the runway. Hundreds of distraught relatives gathered at the airport, desperate for news of loved ones.
Heavy rain meanwhile continued to lash down, hampering rescue efforts and making life almost unbearable for the waiting relatives. Joining these people were foreign tour operators, checking through the passenger list to account for the dead and missing.