Thai budget airline suffers Phuket crash

PHUKET – A Thai budget airline crashed Sunday in the tourist resort of Phuket in southern Thailand while attempting to land in torrential rains, killing at least 88 of the 130 people on board.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-82, belonging to budget airline One-Two-Go, had broken in two on impact on landing. Flight OG 269 was on a flight from the Thai capital, Bangkok.

According to airport officials, the first part of the plane was dug into the ground. while tail section was stuck on the runway.

Media reports quoted Chaisak Angsuwan, director-general of the Air Transport Authority of Thailand, as saying 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.

Officials said that of the 130 people on board, 123 were passengers and seven the crew. Many of the passengers were foreign tourists heading to this famous Thai resort town for their holidays and included nationals from Australia, Britain, France, Iran, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden. About 43 people managed to escape the burning wreckage and are being treated in Phuket’s hospitals.

It is believed that among the dead were 55 foreigners. Both of the plane’s pilots are also believed to have perished in the crash.

The airline is operated by Bangkok-based low-cost operator One-Two-Go, one of Thailand’s first budget airlines. It was set up in December 2003 as a subsidiary of Orient Thai Airways, and services domestic routes.

This is Thailand’s worst aviation accident since December 1998 when 101 people were killed after a Thai Airways crashed on landing near another southern resort.

At presstime the two black boxes have been found and are now in the hands of investigators. Meanwhile, the Phuket International Airport is closed to all flights.

This latest crash resurrects concerns of the safety of low-cost airlines that have proliferated in Asia in the past few years. Many of the fleet of the LCCs are old, with perhaps the exception of AirAsia and Tiger Airways.

While bad weather and poor visibility was blamed for the latest crash in Phuket, a series of crashes in the past few years have had led to heightened concerns. Crashes in Indonesia in the last two years has led to the ban on all its airlines flying to the EU.

In a related development Malaysia Airlines has cancelled its second daily flight from Kuala Lumpur to Phuket following the closure of the airport.