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PHUKET, Thailand: A Thai passenger jet with 128 people on board crashed on Sunday while coming in for landing in bad weather on the resort island of Phuket, police and officials said.
Police said some people were rescued from the wreckage of the MD-80, which was operated by Thai budget carrier One-Two-Go and was flying in from the capital Bangkok.
Reports of deaths from officials could not be confirmed.
One said the plane broke into two pieces when it slammed into the ground, while another said the aircraft slid off the runway in the rain, slammed into the nearby jungle and caught fire.
A local official told TiTV television news she feared more than 30 people had been killed in the crash.
"The number of deaths is still unclear but it is likely more than 30 people," said Anchalee Vanich Thepbutr, a senior provincial official in Phuket.
"The aircraft slid off the runway and hit the nearby jungle."
The pilot had asked for clearance to land and it was not immediately clear what went wrong, said civil aviation official Chiasak Angkauwan.
"The airplane asked to land but due to the weather in Phuket -- strong wind and heavy rain -- maybe the pilot did not see the runway clearly," he told TiTV television. "It is expected that there will be deaths."
"We are rescuing people from the aircraft ... we know now there were 123 passengers and five crew," he told the news channel. "We won't know what really happened until we hear the black box."
An unnamed doctor at a central emergency reporting centre in Bangkok told Thai television that initial reports indicated more than 100 people on board the plane had been injured.
"Deaths could not be confirmed. Most people were injured from broken legs and wounds on the head. The passengers were both Thai and foreigners," the doctor said.
A police chief in the area said that an unknown number of people were being rescued and brought to hospitals.
"I cannot confirm yet how many have been rescued, said Lieutenant Major Sokchai Limcharoen, the police chief.
"The plane was landing and slid off the runway."
Phuket, the biggest of Thailand's islands, is a popular holiday destination located in the Andaman Sea. - AFP/ac
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