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PHUKET, Thailand : A stunned survivor described terrifying scenes on board a Thai budget airliner as it crash-landed at the resort island of Phuket, killing 89 people.
Parinyawich Chusaeng said the plane, landing in heavy rain, gave a sickening lurch before smashing into the ground and bursting into flames, setting fire to passengers nearby.
"The plane just dropped really fast and then jerked back up. The right wing hit a tree and then the plane hit the ground," said the 23-year-old artist from Phuket.
"The people all around me were burning. Some on the floor and some standing, and they were on fire," said Parinyawich, who escaped with cuts and bruises.
One witness watched the disaster unfold from a plane coming in to land behind the ill-fated flight.
"When the plane landed it caught fire," Marine Keisel, from Paris, told AFP at Phuket airport.
"We could see the fire coming out of it. It was chaos inside my plane."
The MD-83 jet carrying 123 passengers and seven crew crashed on landing in driving rain here Sunday, breaking in two and slamming in flames into a wooded embankment.
Authorities said 89 people were killed, including 55 foreigners, while the other 41 survived and were being treated.
Television images showed the blackened, smouldering jet lying on grass off the runway by a fence and close to trees. Officials and rescuers could be seen carrying bodies covered with blankets from the wreckage in the pouring rain.
Corpses, many badly burned, were laid out in the modern but modest airport terminal with no space for them in local hospitals.
"There is a problem as we are lacking refrigerators at the hospitals to put the dead bodies in...all the dead bodies have been laid in the auditorium room at the Phuket airport terminal," the health ministry said.
As anguished relatives desperately sought to learn if their loved ones had survived, Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla said 87 people died and 43 survived, accounting for all those on board.
"Some victims died of fire, some were thrown out of the airplane," deputy provincial governor Vorapot Ratsima told AFP.
The plane had flown in from the capital Bangkok in mid-afternoon in heavy rain and low visibility.
"There are bodies piled up inside the smouldering wreckage," Vorapot told Channel 11 television earlier. "What we have to do is to identify and return dead bodies to their relatives."
Authorities quickly closed Phuket airport, stranding hundreds of locals and tourists.
No one appeared to be disseminating any information and airline officials were visibly overwhelmed.
David McGivney, 23, from Ireland, was on vacation and waiting to return to Bangkok. When the accident happened he was on another plane, which waited on the tarmac for an hour.
"Nothing was said to us until we saw it on the news," he said.
Asked if he was willing to fly, McGivney said: "Not really, maybe we'll get the bus tonight."
At Bangkok's Don Mueang airport, where the flight took off, tearful relatives complained about the lack of information.
"My relative was on the plane," Yongchan Phasriwong said, his wife crying beside him. "He worked with the customs department in Phuket. He flew back to work in Phuket every Sunday.
"The airline tells us nothing. They do not have information for us. I hope he will make it."
Phanee Waiyaphreuk wanted to know if her son had survived.
"I came here to find information about my son who is a trainee cabin crew member and was on board. He just graduated," she told AFP, her voice shaking.
"I don't have any information yet from the airline." - AFP/de
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