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BANGKOK: Thai police said on Thursday that it could take up to two more weeks formally to identify 33 badly burnt victims of the Phuket plane crash that killed nearly 90 people.
Aviation officials are still trying to determine what caused the disaster, and investigators are to send the crucial flight data recorders to the United States for analysis.
It also emerged that the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 plane was 24 years old – twice as old as previously stated by transport ministry officials.
The jet, operated by budget airline One-Two-Go, slammed onto the runway on the holiday island of Phuket in driving rain and strong wind, careered into an embankment and broke up in flames.
A total of 89 of the 130 passengers and crew, most of them foreigners, were killed in Sunday's accident.
Chaisawasd Kittipornpaiboon, permanent secretary at the transport ministry, told AFP that officials from the aviation department would accompany the flight recorders, commonly know as black boxes, to the United States on Friday.
Results are expected within two weeks, he said.
The painstaking task of collecting DNA and other evidence from the victims was now complete, forensic police chief Lieutenant General Amporn Charuchinda said, but he warned that full identification of the dead would take time.
"Thirty-three dead bodies are still unidentified," he added. "Within two weeks we expect to get all identified. Our forensic checks are finished, we are just waiting for evidence or records from relatives or families.
"Some bodies were badly burnt. We need more time to identify them."
Forensic investigators have been under pressure to speed up the process – notably from the Iranians, Amporn said, who lost 18 nationals.
"I can't do any favours... any mistakes, it's my responsibility and Thailand too," he said.
One-Two-Go officials have said only 12 of the 54 foreigners killed in the crash are awaiting identification, and all 35 Thai victims had been named.
The figures cited by the police and One-Two-Go do not tally because the airline lists a person as identified once a passport has been retrieved from the wreckage.
Forensic police, however, want more evidence before formally putting a name to a victim.
Citizens from Thailand, France, Iran, Britain, Israel, the United States, Germany, Canada, Sweden, Australia and Indonesia were among the dead, the airline has said, while Ireland has also reported a fatality.
Relatives may also face a long wait to find out what caused the crash, with officials probing whether bad weather, dangerous wind conditions, airport malfunctions or pilot error were to blame.
"Today (Thursday) I will collect more information from the plane wreckage and air traffic control, and meteorological information," said Vutichai Singhamany, a safety director at the Department of Civil Aviation.
"The investigation will take time – I cannot say how long," he added.
So far, investigators have said that the Indonesian pilot was warned of a dangerous weather condition known as wind shear as he came in to land, but that he decided to land anyway.
It appears he changed his mind at the last moment and tried to pull up, but was caught in the wind shear and crashed on the runway.
Three of six systems designed to detect wind shear were not working at the airport when the passenger jet crashed, Vutichai said earlier this week.
- AFP/so
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