PHUKET, Thailand – A passenger plane
fi lled with foreign tourists crashed
Sunday as it tried to land in pouring
rain on the island of Phuket, splitting in
two and bursting into flames, officials
said. At least 87 people were killed.
“You could tell when it was landing
it was in trouble,” an Irish survivor
identified as Sean said. “It was making
a noise, this bang.”
The budget One-Two-Go Airlines
domestic flight OG269 was carrying
123 passengers and seven crew
members from the capital, Bangkokm
to Phuket – popular among tourists for
its pristine beaches and one of the areas
hardest hit by the 2004 tsunami.
“The visibility was poor as the pilot
attempted to land. He decided to make a
go-around, but the plane lost balance and
crashed,” said Chaisak Angsuwan, director
general of the Air Transport Authority of
Thailand. “It was torn into two parts.”
Sunday’s crash is the country’s
deadliest aviation accident since Dec.
11, 1998, when 101 people were in the
crash of Thai Airways plane at Surat
Thani, 330 miles south of Bangkok.
Forty-five people survived.
The crash is the latest to hit the
booming budget airline industry in
Asia, which has seen its rapid growth
sometimes overshadowed by a recent