By Xinhua
Bangkok : At least 69 people were killed and 43 others injured as a commercial airliner, with 128 persons aboard, crashed while attempting to land in bad weather at the Phuket International Airport in southern Thailand Sunday afternoon, media here reported.
Eleven passengers were still missing, reports said.
Thailand’s Channel 11 TV station reported that at least 69 have been killed in the tragedy, in which an MB 82 aircraft of Thailand’s budget airline One-Two-Go, crashed into trees and walls around the airport and burst into fire at around 3.40 p.m. Sunday (0840 GMT).
Chaisak Angsuwan, director of the Civil Aviation Department of Thailand, said that the aircraft broke into two as it attempted to land at the airport during 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. It was torn into two parts,” he said.
Rescue work is still going on. Deputy governor of the Phuket province Worapot Rattasima said so far 43 injured victims have been sent to hospitals for treatment. He feared the other passengers on the aircraft might not have survived.
Foreign victims being treated at hospitals include British, Iranian, Australian and Swedish nationals.
A Thai survivor, a man in his seventies named Nong, told The Nation media group in the hospital that the plane burst into flames about three minutes after it crashed. Nong and his wife jumped from a window and survived.
Udom Tantiprasongchai, chairman of the parent company-Orient Thai Airlines, told The Nation that he was deeply sorry at the tragedy and promised that the victims would receive maximum compensation.
Phuket is an island located on the eastern coast of Indian Ocean in southern Thailand and one of southeast Asia’s most popular tourist destinations.
After the crash, all flights in and out of the Phuket airport were cancelled.