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Investigators searched yesterday through the charred remains of a plane that crashed and killed 90 people - mostly foreigners - on Thailand's resort island of Phuket, while an airline official said wind shear may have doomed the flight.
The budget One-Two-Go Airlines flight was carrying 123 passengers and seven crew from Bangkok to Phuket when it skidded off a runway on Sunday while landing in driving wind and rain, catching fire and engulfing some passengers in flames as others kicked out windows to escape.
Forty people were injured in the accident, Thailand's worst air crash in a decade, and investigators searched for the bodies of at least five more missing people.
Investigators said they had recovered the plane's two flight data recorders, known as "black boxes," and hoped they would yield answers about the accident in a few weeks.
"We are still unable to state the cause of the accident," Transport Minister Theera Haocharoen said. "The officials have found the black boxes and will send them for analysis to the United States. Hopefully, we will learn in a few weeks the cause of accident."
Kajit Habnanonda, president of Orient-Thai Airlines, which owns One-Two-Go, said wind shear - the rapid change in wind speed which can affect takeoffs and landings - was a possible cause of the accident.
"It is possible that the plane crash was caused by wind shear," Kajit said, adding that heavy rains could have contributed to the plane skidding off the runway.
Survivors described scrambling for exits and stepping over burning bodies to escape the blazing wreckage.
Australian survivor Robert Borland's mother Muriel Robertson, 71, who lives in Perth, said she'd been told a stranger had saved her son's life, dragging him as he was on fire from the wreckage.
Borland, 48, said his pants caught fire and he managed to drag himself to an exit where he was pulled by another survivor from the plane to safety. "People were screaming. There was a fire in the cabin and my clothes caught fire."
Cabin crew member Apichit Pata, who suffered spinal injuries and smoke inhalation, believes she was also pulled to safety by someone who heard her calls for help.
Officials say at least 55 of the dead are foreign tourists. The Australian Government has said a Queensland man is almost certainly among them.
Thai passenger Parinyawit Choosaeng told Thailand's Nation television that the plane came in to land fast and low. He said a woman in front of him was sucked out of the aircraft when it broke in two on landing.
'The people all around me were burning. I saw passengers engulfed in fire as I stepped over them on the way out of the plane. I was afraid that it was going to explode, so I ran away."
Survivors spoke of torrential rain and trees bent over in the wind as the plane came in to land at Phuket. "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," said Millie Furlong, a 23-year-old waitress from Canada. "I saw the grass and knew we were going to crash. It was very quick."
John Gerard O'Donnell of Ireland said: "I came out on the wing of the plane ... the exit door, it was kind of crushed and I had to squeeze through. And saw my friend, he was outside. He just got out before me. And next thing, it really caught fire, then I just got badly burned, my face, my legs, my arms."
Rescuers battled with continuing bad weather in Phuket yesterday as they tried to recover bodies that remained missing.
The Bangkok Post newspaper quoted a rescuer who said that most of the dead were still in their seats wearing their seatbelts, while one 57-year-old passenger told the paper how he rescued his wife from the inferno.
"I took my unconscious wife and jumped out of an [emergency] window," said Nong Khaonuan. "I don't think anyone could have survived in the front section of the place which took the heaviest blow in the crash."
Another Thai survivor, Chawalert Jitjamnong, who suffered a back injury, told Thai television that the plane's captain notified passengers the "weather was very bad and he could see nothing".
"I just followed the light and finally got out through a crack under the plane's wing," he said.
Dalad Tantiprasongchai, a business development manager with Orient-Thai Airlines, said the airliner would be providing 100,000 baht ($4437) initially to families of the dead for the funeral and other costs.
"We are deeply sorry about all the losses," Dalad said, reading from a prepared statement. "We are doing our best to investigate and are working to help the remaining survivors and families and relatives to get through this as quickly as they can."
Many of the passengers had planned to holiday at Phuket, a popular beach resort.
Finance Minister Chalangphob Sussangkarn said the crash probably wouldn't affect tourism - a key moneymaker for Thailand - but said officials would "have to take a look at the procedures and the security standards and investigate what happened."
Phuket Airport remained closed. Thai Airways, the country's national carrier, said it was cancelling all flights from there to Bangkok until the airport reopened and that it would reroute flights destined for Phuket to the airport in Krabi, about 60km to the south.
The accident raised new questions about the safety of budget airlines in Southeast Asia, which have experienced rapid growth in recent years and often scramble to find qualified pilots.
Many budget airlines use older planes that have been leased or purchased after years of use by other airlines.
PHUKET TOLL
123 travelled from Bangkok to Phuket 89 people at least killed
55 foreigners, including one Australian, among the dead
41 survivors
85 bodies removed from wreckage
4 remain to be removed
LUCKY ESCAPES
Nong Khaonual, a Thai:
"The aeroplane was landing in heavy rain. It landed too fast. Just before we touched the runway we felt the plane try to lift up, and it skidded off the runway. My wife was half conscious and I dragged her out of the emergency exit. There was a man behind us and he was on fire."
John O'Donnell, 50, from Ireland:
"The plane was on fire, but I managed to get through. I might have come out on the wing."
Parinyawit Choosaeng, 23, of Phuket, who received minor burns:
"The people all around me were burning. Some on the floor and some standing. The plane dropped really fast and then jerked back up."
