Air crash in Phuket ( VTSP ) on 16 September 2007

[Robert 0]

I've seen seen this on the news - lets hope everybody is ok -

 

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1284313,00.html

 

Plane Crash At Thai Airport

Updated: 11:31, Sunday September 16, 2007

 

"A plane has crashed during an attempted landing at Phuket airport in Thailand, it is reported.

There was heavy rain when the Orient Thai Airways plane ditched.

It is unclear whether anyone has been killed or injured.

 

Chaisak Angsuwan, director general of the Air Transport Authority of Thailand, said: "The visibility was poor as the pilot attempted to land.

 

"He decided to make a go-around but the plane lost balance and crashed. It was torn into two parts."

 

The plane was travelling from Bangkok to Phuket.

 

More follows ..."

[Seth K 3]

It's MD82, split in half.................thanx to Flight tracking thread

Hope everybody is OK

[Naim 6]

BBC News says many dead.

 

+++

[Desmond C 0]

Just heard the news at tv3. Hope everyone onboard is still alive

[Naim 6]

2ND LEAD: Budget airline plane crashes at Phuket Airport, many dead

Posted 47 min ago by [Digital Journal Staff]

dpa news in World |

 

 

A plane belonging to the budget airline One-To-Go crashed on landing and burst into flames Sunday at Phuket Airport in southern Thailand, killing an estimated 90 per cent of the people on board, a provincial official said.

 

The plane skidded off the runway after landing in heavy rain storm at Phuket about 4:00 pm (0900 GMT) and crashed into nearby trees.

 

The aircraft, which had 123 passengers and five crew on board when it left Bangkok, broke in two pieces and burst into flames after the collision. The fire hampered the rescue operation.

 

"The fire was throughout the aeroplane," said Phuket Deputy Governor Worraphot Ratsrimaa. "We expect that at least 90 per cent of the passengers died."

 

There were, however, some survivors. A local TV station filmed two foreigners of unknown nationality being taken from the crash site to a nearby hospital.

 

Phuket, an island rimming the Andaman Sea situated about 640 kilometres south of Bangkok, is a popular beach destination for both Thai and foreign tourists.

 

One-To-Go is one of several privately-owned no-frills airlines now operating domestic routes in Thailand.

 

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/2289...rport_many_dead

 

===

 

Passenger plane crashes in heavy rain in south Thailand; official says 100 possibly dead

 

1 minute ago

 

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — A passenger plane crashed while attempting to land at southern Thailand's Phuket airport Sunday afternoon, with a local politician saying 100 could be dead.

 

One official said about 20 are hurt and the deputy governor of Thailand's Phuket island says he fears as many as 100 passengers could be dead in the crash.

 

An unconfirmed television report said 60 were dead.

 

Local television station TITV reported there were 123 mostly foreign passengers on the plane, One-To-Go airlines flight OG 269 from Bangkok to Phuket.

 

"I believe there are people dead, but the number is still unclear," said Chaisak Angsuwan, director general of the Air Transport Authority of Thailand.

 

TITV reported 60 dead. Chaisak said he could not immediately confirm that. It was not clear who the station's report was citing.

 

Chaisak said 20 people were seriously injured on the flight, which crashed in heavy rain.

 

"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.

 

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

 

Maj. Gen. Deecha Butnamphet, police chief in Phuket, said on TITV that "we believe that there are many people who are dead. We are taking the dead and injured out from the scene."

 

One-To-Go, a budget airline, is owned Orient Thai Airways.

 

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/AL...Pj3kXaz5S8kCmzw

Edited September 16, 2007 by Naim

[Yeung H 0]

OMG!!!90 percent of passengers are died.My condolences to the victims of the plane crash.

Seems like this year a lot crashes had happened(TAM,CI,GOL and others).

Hopefully this is the last aviation accident this year.

[Azri M. 0]

 

Oh no! not another budget air crash.

 

---------

 

More Than 110 Believed Killed In Phuket Air Crash

 

By D. Arul Rajoo

 

BANGKOK, Sept 16 (Bernama) -- More than 110 people are believed to have been killed when a plane of a Thailand budget carrier with 128 people on board slid off the runway after landing and broke into two at the Phuket International Airport, about an hour's flight southwest of here.

 

Initial reports indicate that Malaysians were not among the passengers on Flight OG269 of One-Two-Go Airlines that crash-landed at about 3.40pm after heavy rain.

 

According to reports, rescue workers have found 66 bodies. The reports said at least 74 of the passengers were Thais and the rest foreigners.

 

Among the injured were Britons, Australians, Iranians, Germans and Irish while the identities of the dead were not known yet.

 

The One-To-Go Airlines was carrying 123 passengers and five crew when it slid off the runway and broke into two before catching fire.

 

The plane had flown from Don Muang International Airport here.

 

One-Two-Go Airlines is a low-cost airline based in Bangkok and is the domestic subsidiary of Orient Thai Airlines.

 

The airline started operations in December 2003 with a Bangkok-to-Chiang Mai service.

 

It recently added an additional daily flight out of Don Muang to Phuket, giving it six flights a day. It has eight McDonnell Douglas MD-80 jets in its fleet.

 

Meanwhile, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) cancelled its second daily flight from Kuala Lumpur to Phuket following the closure of the airport.

 

A MAS official said the MH790 Kuala Lumpur-Phuket flight was scheduled to have arrived in Phuket at 6.30pm (7.30pm Malaysian time) and returned to Kuala Lumpur at 7.35pm.

 

He said the 67 passengers who were to have travelled from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur on Flight MH791 had been taken to a hotel and would fly tomorrow once the airport opened.

 

The airline operates two flights on the route, with the first leaving Kuala Lumpur at 9.30am. MAS has four flights daily between Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.

 

-- BERNAMA

[Nizam 0]

So sad to hear something like this

 

My condolences to the family of victims

[Naim 6]

PHUKET PLANE CRASH TOLL MOUNTS

 

Bangkok Post

 

A One-To-Go Airlines passenger jet with 128 people aboard crashed and burned while landing at Phuket Airport in foul weather Sunday afternoon. Phuket deputy governor Vorapot Rajsima said 88 people were confirmed dead.

 

At least 29 people were confirmed to have survived, including two Australians.

 

"Nearly half the passengers were foreign tourists," said one survivor, Nong Khaonuan. In a TV interview, he said. "I've flown on many airplanes before and I can say there was something strange about our landing. We seemed to drop down too fast."

 

There was hope that many survived after TiTV showed two foreigners being carried away to local hospital. But the fire that ripped through the crashed aircraft apparently claimed dozens of lives.

 

The MD82 plane of the budget airline skidded off the runway after landing on a flight from Don Muang airport in Bangkok, and crashed into trees, bursting into fire.

 

"The fire was throughout the airplane," said Phuket Deputy Governor Worraphot Ratsrimaa. "We expect that at least 90 per cent of the passengers died."

 

"The plane was landing and slid off the runway. We are rescuing people and carrying injured people to hospitals," said Pol Lt Sokchai Limcharoen, a police officer in the area in an early report.

 

Chaisak Angsuwan, director general of the Air Transport Authority of Thailand said the aircraft broke in two as it attempted to land at Phuket airport in bad weather.

 

Chaisak said that there was heavy rain when flight OG269 of parent Orient Thai Airways traveling from Bangkok's Don Muang airport to Phuket attempted to make a landing. Planes in both Orient Thai and One-Two-Go livery use the OG flight identifier.

 

"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. "The plane then fell onto the runway and broke into two. It is expected that there will be deaths.

 

"The airplane asked to land but due to the weather in Phuket -strong wind and heavy rain -maybe the pilot did not see the runway clearly," said Chaisak.

 

Witnesses said the airline was using its usual MD-82 twin-engine passenger jet aircraft, a model of the McDonnell-Douglas DC9. One-Two-Go owned seven such planes, which it used for frequent flights around Thailand, including six each day from Bangkok to Phuket and return.

 

Airport officials and rescue workers are still working to help the victims from the plane which caught fire after it crashlanded and skidded off the runway.

 

Authorities said there were 123 passengers and five crew members on board when the plane crashed at about 3:35pm Sunday afternoon.

 

Weather in Phuket has been bad for several days, with thunderstorms and high wind gusts at times.

 

http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/tops...s.php?id=121720

[T Azahan 1]

oh no!! budget carrier.......

[Andrew Yong 0]

OMG !!! My condolance to the victims family!!!

[Naim 6]

Every airlines will have its 'first', that's for certain. It's only a matter of when. Btw, passenger manifest of crashed 1-2-Go plane is HERE - go check to see if anybody you know is there.

 

 

+++

 

Executive 'shocked' at airline's first crash

 

(Agencies) - An airline executive says he was "shocked" by news that his company's plane crashed and burned while attempting to land at the Phuket airport on Sunday.

 

The managing director of Orient Thai Airlines which owns 1-2-Go Airlines, told a Thai television station that this is the first accident in more than a decade that the airline has been operating.

 

Officials at the scene say the plane crashed in a downpour skidded off the runaway and broke into two parts. Survivors described a chaotic situation, trying to escape from windows as fire consumed the plane.

 

The plane was carrying 123 mostly foreign passengers and five crew members.

 

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/b...s.php?id=121727

Edited September 16, 2007 by Naim

[Louis L. 2]

i offer my deepest condolense to all family members that been involved... ...yet another sad story ...

[Rozhan 0]

Very bad accident. However I wonder why some planes would divert to an alternate airport while others choose to land anyway in bad weather conditions. Is it the Captain's call?

[Pieter C. 5]

According Dutch news, there were 4 Dutch passengers on the strikken jet, all wounded and hospitalized...

 

RIP for those who succumbed in the crash/blaze !

[Edwin Yii 0]

 

 

registration is HS-OMG

 

http://www.bkkok.com/content-49.html

[Walter Sim 1]

The registration speaks for itselves. OMG

 

RIP to the victims. And has aviation mishaps become more regular these days????

[Andrew Ong 1]

RIP to the passengers who had perished .

 

87 killed in Thai plane crash

 

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: NTSB will assist in the crash investigation
• Thai air crash kills 87 people, with 43 survivors
• One-Two-GO airways jet was trying to land in Phuket in bad weather
• Jet skidded sideways off runway

(CNN) -- A passenger jet crashed Sunday at the Phuket International Airport in southern Thailand shortly after landing, killing 87 of the 130 people on board, according to Health Ministry officials.

 

Passengers and crew scrambled for the One-Two-GO plane's emergency exits, trying to escape as flames spread through the aircraft, witnesses said.

 

Erik Nihlen, a Swedish tourist who helped open an emergency exit door, told his mother that he and other passengers had feared the aircraft might crash as strong winds buffeted the plane during its second attempt at landing.

 

"When they were up in the air, they thought something was not right," Maria Nihlen said. "Before the second [landing attempt], they knew that they were going to crash and they formed into position for an emergency landing and, well, then it happened."

 

She said her son -- who suffered only minor bruises -- was stuck in his seat belt as passengers climbed over him to get to the exit door, which was still closed.

 

"People were falling over him ... and then the shelf fell over him from above," she said. "But he and his friend managed to actually push hard away the people to be able to open the emergency exit door."

 

Many of the 43 survivors, who include a number of Europeans, escaped by climbing out an exit door onto the wing.

 

John Gerard O'Donnell, an Irishman who spoke to the news media from his hospital bed, said he escaped by climbing out an exit door onto the plane's wing.

 

"I just can't get my head around what happened," said O'Donnell, whose face and arms were bandaged. "As the plane was landing, you could tell it was in trouble 'cause it kind of landed and came up again," he said. "Then the second time, it just smashed."

 

He said the exit door was "kind of crushed, but we got to squeeze through and onto the wing." "My friend was outside, I seen him, he got out before me, and next thing it really caught fire then," O'Donnell said. "I just got badly burnt -- my face, my legs, my arms."

 

He said he had arrived Saturday in Bangkok and intended to spend the week in Phuket with his friend, who underwent surgery for his injuries.

 

William Harding, who witnessed the crash from another One-Two-GO aircraft that had landed just five minutes before, said he saw flames engulf the plane.

 

"After about five minutes of burning, there was a small explosion that blew off the top of the plane," he said. "My friend (who also witnessed the crash) ... was saying that in that flight some of the crew jumped at the last minute and the plane kind of burst into flames."

 

The aircraft operated by Thai budget carrier One-Two-GO crashed shortly after landing in heavy winds and strong rains in the resort town of Phuket. The aircraft burst into flames shortly after impact, an eyewitness said.

 

A spokesman for the airline said Flight 269 left Bangkok at approximately 2:30 p.m. (3:30 a.m. ET) local time and was scheduled to land in Phuket at approximately 3:50 p.m. (4:50 a.m. ET)

 

He said the plane was carrying 123 passengers and seven crew members.

 

The island of Phuket is a popular resort destination for international and local tourists.

 

The passenger jet skidded off the runway during a landing attempt amid heavy rain and strong crosswinds, according to Thai News Agency.

 

Witness William Harding saw the plane land, then crash into a nearby hillside.

 

"The inside was totally on fire and about five minutes of burning, there was a small explosion that blew off the top of the plane," he said.

 

"My friend ... was saying that in that flight some of the crew jumped at the last minute and the plane kind of burst into flames."

 

Harding said he was a passenger on another One-Two-GO airliner that landed in Phuket five minutes before the plane crash.

 

He said the weather was bad, with strong winds and rain.

 

"It was the roughest landing I've ever experienced," he said. "I've never been through anything like that."

 

Harding said the plane "knocked up against a hill."

 

Video showed dozens of ambulances and fire trucks on the scene, which was enveloped in black smoke.

 

"The jet was crashed ... into a hill that's the side of a runway," Harding said. "It looked basically intact. The wing was still attached to the fuselage. The tail was down. But the inside of the plane was totally ablaze."

 

Two hospitals treating survivors detailed their nationalities as: Australian: 1, Austrian: 1, British: 8, Dutch:1, German: 4, Iranian: 3, Irish: 3, Italian: 1, Swedish: 2, Thai: 14.

 

All flights from Phuket International Airport were canceled following the crash, which TNA reported caused "confusion and anger among travelers concerned to make connections to other destinations and to know when operations will resume."

 

Phuket International Airport is the second-busiest airport in Thailand, according to the airport's Web site. The airport is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from downtown Phuket.

 

TNA reported the aircraft that crashed was a U.S.-made McDonnell-Douglas 82.

 

The National Transportation Safety Board will assist the Thai government in the investigation, according to a statement on the NTSB's Web site.

 

Both the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration usually deploy investigators to crash sites involving U.S.-made aircraft.

[Yusoff 1]

Yet another plane crash. My deepest condolences to the families of the perished pax. And guys, thanks for the photos..

[Pall 0]

Sad to hear this,

 

Deepest Condolence to all the families involved

[Naim 6]

Both pilots died. The capt was Indonesian.

 

+++

 

Search for crash cause begins

17/9/07

 

PHUKET - Besides looking for clues as to why the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 veered off the runway and smashed into a densely wooded embankment, rescue workers still have to recover five bodies from the wreckage.

 

Both pilots were killed, deputy transport minister Sansern Wong-Chaum said, but 42 people survived a crash that is likely to raise more safety questions for the dozens of budget carriers that have sprung up across Asia in the last decade.

 

Dr Charnsilp Wacharajira, who carried out autopsies on some of those killed, said they died of traumatic injuries to the head, indicating that the impact of the crash rather than the fire killed them.

 

Thailand's Public Health and Interior ministries issued lists of almost 30 foreign survivors.

 

Many of those injured had broken legs and similar injuries from jumping from the burning plane, Piyanooch Ananpakdee, a coordinator at Bangkok Phuket Hospital, said.

 

Five survivors were in critical condition, with burns to 60 per cent of their bodies, hospital officials said.

 

Fourteen Thais, eight Britons, five Iranians and four Germans were among the survivors, they said.

 

One-Two-go Airlines flight OG269 was carrying 123 passengers and seven crew members to Phuket from Bangkok, said Monrudee Gettuphan, spokeswoman for Airports of Thailand. There were 78 foreigners on board, she said.

 

The "black box" flight data recorder has been recovered and much of the investigation is likely to focus on the weather conditions as the plane, flown by Bangkok-based low-cost operator One-Two-Go, was coming in to land.

 

"We will have to wait for the actual cause of the accident. We will send the black box to the United States. It will take one week to analyse," Mr Sansern said.

 

Survivors spoke of torrential rain and trees bent over in the wind, and several accounts suggested the pilot attempted to land, but then aborted.

 

"The pilot tried to bring the plane back up. He started to turn right and made a sharp turn right and then the plane went into the embankment," Millie Furlong, a 23-year-old waitress from Canada, said in hospital.

 

"I saw the grass and knew we were going to crash. It was very quick."

 

Udom Tantiprasongchai, chairman of One-Two-Go parent company Orient Thai Airlines, said the pilot was experienced.

 

"Police will set up an investigating committee to find out what actually caused the accident. What we need to do right now is take care of the injured," he told reporters on Sunday evening. "I'm deeply sorry about this tragic event."

 

Despite a number of crashes and scares, most recently in Indonesia, analysts say there is no hard evidence to suggest budget carriers are more accident-prone than their full-service competitors.

 

The deputy governor of Phuket province, Vorapot Rajsima, said the dead included French, German, Israeli, Australian and British nationals.

 

It is not immediately clear how many foreigners had died, he said.

 

"One French national has died and two others have been injured," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in a statement, expressing his condolences to the families of the victims.

 

He said his ministry was in touch with Thai officials to determine if there were any more French victims, "and if that is the case, we will aid their families."

 

Israeli military radio reported that eight Israelis were missing and two injured in the crash.

 

The report was not immediately confirmed by the Israeli foreign ministry.

 

An Israeli police team specialising in identifying bodies was to leave on Monday for Bangkok, the police said.

 

Officials said the plane had broken in two when it touched down on the isle, known as the Pearl of the Andaman. (Agencies)

 

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/b...s.php?id=121735

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 17, 2007 by Naim

[Teoh Z Yao 0]

I wish to offer my condolence to the victims and families involved...

[Tamizi Hj Tamby 1]

Oh dear god..Sincere condolences to all victims and crews of the ill-fated flight...

[Mohd Idham 0]

Both pilots were killed

 

They were the 'first'...died trying....

[iwan 3]

just read this piece of news from todays star..my deepest condolences to the famalies of those involved...coming to think about it,they were already so close to a safe landing..