By IANS
Bangkok : At least 65 people were killed and 40 were injured as a Thai commercial airliner with 128 persons aboard crashed when landing at the Phuket International Airport in southern Thailand Sunday afternoon, Bangkok’s transport radio station FM 100 reported.
The MB 82 aircraft of Thailand’s budget airline, One-Two-Go airline, crashed into trees and caught fire, after it attempted a failed landing at around 3.40 p.m. Sunday (0840 GMT).
Thailand’s TITV station quoted Chaisak Angsuwan, director general of the Air Transport Authority of Thailand, saying that the aircraft broke into two as it attempted to land at the airport in bad weather.
Chaisak told TITV that there was heavy rain when the plane tried to land.
“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,” he said.
Weather in Phuket has been bad for several days, with thunderstorms and high wind gusts at times.
On board the plane were 79 foreign and 44 Thai passengers.
Rescue work is till going on. More than 20 injured have been sent to hospitals, at least three of them were reported to be in serious condition.
A Thai survivor, a 70-year-old Thai man named Nong, told The Nation media group in the hospital that the whole plane was burning within three minutes of the crash.
Phuket is an island located on the eastern coast of Indian Ocean in southern Thailand and is one of southeast Asia’s most popular tourist destinations.