Survivors tell of horror plane crash

The survivors of the Thai plane crash which killed at least 88 people have described scrambling for exits and stepping over burning bodies to escape the blazing wreckage

The budget One-Two-Go Airlines flight was carrying 123 passengers and seven crew from Bangkok to Phuket when it skidded off a runway yesterday, smashed into a wooded embankment and burst into flames as it tried to land during a fierce monsoon storm.

Flames quickly engulfed parts of the wreckage, forcing some panicked survivors to kick out windows to escape.

Several others, including Australian survivor Robert Borland, told how fellow passengers saved their lives by dragging them to safety.

Mr 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.

“Apparently he was dragged out of the plane burning by another man,” she said after speaking to her son by phone and being told he’d broken his arm and suffered burns.

Cabin crew member Apichit Pata, who suffered a spinal injuries and smoke inhalation, believed she was also pulled to safety by someone who heard her calls for help. “I was knocked unconscious,” she said. “I woke up still strapped in my seat and screamed for help.” “Someone helped me, but I went unconscious again because of the smoke.” “I don’t know how I got off the plane.”

Officials said at least 55 of the dead were foreign tourists, with the Australian Government saying 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. “I saw passengers engulfed in fire as I stepped over them on the way out of the plane,” he told Nation TV. “I was afraid that the plane 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, from hospital.” “I saw the grass and knew we were going to crash.” “It was very quick.”

John Gerard O’Donnell of Ireland, speaking from his hospital bed, said it was clear the plane was out of control. “Our plane was landing, you can tell it was in trouble, because it kind of landed then came up again the second time,” he said.

“I came out on the wing of the plane … the exit door, it was kind of crushed and I had to squeeze through.” I 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 today as they tried to recover five 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.

Report by The Mole from The Herald Sun, AFP, AAP and Reuters