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WORLD: British tourists injured as Thai plane crashes on holiday island
Robert Mendick, Andrew Drummond in Bangkok and Daniel Byam Shaw5 Aug 2009
At least four British tourists were injured when a plane crashed on landing on a Thai holiday island, killing the pilot.
The Bangkok Airways plane skidded off the runway in torrential rain and ploughed into a disused traffic control tower at Koh Samui airport.
The pilot died on impact while 34 of the 70 passengers and other crew onboard suffered injuries, some of them thought to be serious.
Two of the Britons hurt — a man and a woman — were travelling with the Gold Medal tour company, part of the Thomas Cook group.
Bangkok Airways said later that two of the British tourists had suffered broken legs and the other two had less-severe injuries. A spokeswoman for the travel company said: “Gold Medal can confirm that it had two passengers on
board the Bangkok Airways flight PG266. Both have been transferred to local hospitals where we have made contact with them and, while they have sustained some injuries, we understand they will make a full recovery.”
The spokeswoman added: “Our local representative has visited them and we will be offering all the help and support possible during this time.”
The aircraft was flying a short hop from the resort of Krabi in southern Thailand to Koh Samui, another popular island, when it was hit by a monsoon and high winds as it came into land. The left hand side of the cockpit and the left wing struck the former control tower now being used as the airport fire station.
A small fire broke out near the cockpit but was extinguished quickly. Major Colonel Sayan Sartsri of the Thai police said: “The heavy damage was at the front of the plane where the
pilot was. It looks like he suffered from the impact.” The co-pilot had been trapped, he said.
The rest of the 68 passengers and two crew were evacuated, with those injured sent to five hospitals on the island, about 300 miles south of Bangkok.
Local reports said some of passengers suffered broken legs.
A spokeswoman at the Bangkok Samui Hospital said: “We have one Briton here who is not severely injured but is resting at the moment.”
She said her hospital had three other Europeans admitted from the crash, one from France, one from Switzerland and one Dane. Many others had been treated for minor injuries and been discharged.
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Reader views (2)
I was hiding from a heavy rain storm next to the airport when the plane came in to land. The rain was very heavy at the time but the pilot put the plane down perfectly. It was only when the plane was around halfway down the runway did it just seem to veer to the left. I have flown in and out of this airport many times and Knew there was no run off area that side. As it ran off the runway it looked like it lost its nose wheel and pitched forward.The emergency crews were on the scene very quickly and thankfully there was no fire. Sadly the pilot lost his life. The injured were taken to a local hospital and are well. This is a busy airport with a very good safety record.
- Duncan Walker, Ex Peckham now Thailand, 05/08/2009 02:40
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I live on a mountain overlooking Samui airport and at the time of the crash there were severe winds mixed with torrential rain,visibility at the time of the crash was 100 metres at best,couple this with the wind and you have got very dangerous conditions.It is not unheard of for pilots to bypass Samui in severe weather conditions and the plane that crashed is a twin prop plane,not a jet,I have landed many times in all types of weather conditions and prefer to land in the jet rather than the twin prop as the landings in the jet are smooth,but even in good conditions you always get a hard landing in the smaller twin props.
- Jim Ex Pat,Islington N1, thailand, 04/08/2009 11:48
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