Flight Safety Information (17SEP07-262)
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*Jet Crash in Thailand's Phuket Kills 88
*Executive 'shocked' at airline's first crash
*Third Fatal Crash at Nevada Air Races
*6 people, including 2 Polish tourists,
die in helicopter crashes in Russia's Far East
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Jet Crash in Thailand's Phuket Kills 88
PHUKET, Thailand (AP) - A passenger plane filled 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 88 people were killed.
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.
Survivors described their escape amid chaos, smoke and fire.
"As soon as we hit, everything went dark and everything fell," said Mildred Furlong, 23, a waitress from Prince George, British Columbia, in Canada. The plane started filling with smoke and fires broke out, she said. A passenger in front of her caught fire, while one in the back kicked out a plane window.
"I saw passengers engulfed in fire as I stepped over them on way out of the plane," Parinwit Chusaeng, a survivor who suffered minor burns, told the Nation television channel. "I was afraid that the airplane was going to explode so I ran away."
Wallop Thainua, the country's deputy health minister, said about 60 bodies were retrieved quickly, but it took hours to get the other bodies out. Seventy-eight of those on board were foreigners.
Officials said the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 crashed in a downpour, skidded off the runaway and broke in two. Some said weather was likely a factor in the crash.
"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."
Local television reports showed parts of the twisted and smoking wreckage sitting off to the side of the runaway. Masked rescue workers converged on the plane, carrying away bodies wrapped in white sheets.
Lt. Gen. Amporn Charuchinda, chief of the police forensic bureau, said that the authorities might move some of the dead bodies to a mortuary in Phang Nga province where some of the tsunami victims were kept. Some 8,000 people were killed in Phuket in the 2004 disaster.
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.
An Irish survivor, identified as Sean, told of being badly burned on his arms, legs and back as he escaped the flames. Speaking to TITV from a local hospital, he said he knew something was wrong before the flight landed.
"You could tell when it was landing it was in trouble," he said. "It was making a noise, this bang."
One-Two-Go is one of several budget airlines started up in the past few years after Thailand's airline sector was liberalized. It started operations in December 2003, and is the domestic subsidiary of Orient- Thai Airlines, a low-cost regional carrier based in Thailand.
The crash is the latest to hit the booming budget airline industry in Asia, which has been seen its rapid growth sometimes overshadowed a serious of accidents in the recent years.
An Adam Air flight plunged into off the Indonesian coast on New Year's Day, killing 102 people. In 2004, a MD-82 operated by Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air skidded off the runaway in heavy rain at Solo airport in Central Java and crashed, killing 26 people.
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22nd loss of a MD-80
6th worst accident involving a MD-80 (at the time)
6th worst accident involving a MD-80 (currently)
3rd worst accident in Thailand (at the time)
3rd worst accident in Thailand (currently)
(aviation-safety.net)
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Executive 'shocked' at airline's first crash
(Agencies) - An airline executive says he was "shocked" by news that his company's plane crashed and burned while attempting to land at the Phuket airport on Sunday.
The managing director of Orient Thai Airlines which owns 1-2-Go Airlines, told a Thai television station that this is the first accident in more than a decade that the airline has been operating.
Officials at the scene say the plane crashed in a downpour skidded off the runaway and broke into two parts. Survivors described a chaotic situation, trying to escape from windows as fire consumed the plane.
The plane was carrying 123 mostly foreign passengers and five crew members.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=121727
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Third Fatal Crash at Nevada Air Races
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Two airplanes collided Friday at the Reno National Championship Air Races, killing one pilot and injuring another in the third fatal crash at the event in four days.
Five-time defending champion Gary Hubler, 51, of Caldwell, Idaho, was killed in the crash shortly after 9:30 a.m. at Stead Airport just north of Reno, race officials said.
It was the 18th fatality in the 44-year history of the air races and caused the suspension of the competition for the day, but race officials said it would resume Saturday as scheduled.
The pilot of the other plane in Friday's crash was identified as Jason Somes of Simi Valley, Calif. He was taken to a hospital with injuries not considered life threatening. A friend said he had an eye injury.
Hubler's plane apparently clipped the back of Somes' plane before crashing. Somes was able to land his damaged aircraft, race officials said.
"They just clipped wings barely," said witness Carter Fox. "One immediately went down to the ground."
Two judges on the ground also suffered minor injuries from flying debris. One refused medical attention, and the other was treated at the scene.
Students on a field trip from seven elementary schools were among those at the races when the crash occurred. School officials said counselors were being made available to talk to children.
Competing in the Forumla One class, Hubler was flying a Cassutt III M single-seat plane named "Mariah," which is designed for pylon racing and aerial acrobatics.
Hubler started competing in the Reno races in 1984. During Thursday's first heat, he reached a top speed of 259 mph, according to the air races' Web site.
Two pilots were killed in separate accidents on Tuesday and Thursday, the first time since 1993 there has been more than one fatal crash at the races in the same year.
"This is highly unusual," said Michael Houghton, president of the air races.
The races are like a car race in the sky, following an oval path over the airport runway and around pylon markers at various distances and sometimes within a few hundred feet of the ground.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gd0ausByhtNROdm_WrNVJHEw0m0g
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6 people, including 2 Polish tourists, die in helicopter crashes in Russia's Far East
MOSCOW: (AP) A helicopter crash in Russia's Far East killed six people, including two Polish tourists, officials said Sunday.
The Mi-8 helicopter crashed in the Magadan region Saturday, the regional branch of Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said in a statement. It said the helicopter's pilot survived the crash and was hospitalized with injuries, but six passengers, including two tourists from Poland, were killed.
The ministry would not name the victims. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
Crashes of the Mi-8 — a workhorse helicopter used widely in civilian aviation as well as by the military — occur frequently in Russia and often are blamed on poor maintenance and excessive age.
Another Mi-8 carrying six people went missing last Sunday in a remote Arctic province and rescuers have not yet located it.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/16/europe/EU-GEN-Russia-Helicopter-Cr ash.php
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