MD 82 Crashes History

There are total of MD 82 (McDonald Douglas) 18 crahses from 1981 up to Phuket crash today.

http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/aircraft_detail.cgi?aircraft=McDonnell+Douglas+MD-8

89 Killed - updated September 19, 2007

88 killed in Thai plane crash

A passenger jet crashed Sunday at Phuket International Airport in southern Thailand shortly after landing, killing 88 of the 130 people on board, according to Health Ministry officials.

Passengers and crew -- including dozens of European tourists --scrambled for the One-Two-GO plane's emergency exits, trying to escape as flames spread through the aircraft, witnesses said.

The Thai News Agency reported the aircraft that crashed was a U.S.-made McDonnell-Douglas 82.

The National Transportation Safety Board will assist the Thai government in the investigation, according to a statement on the NTSB's Web site.

Both the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration usually deploy investigators to crash sites involving U.S.-made aircraft.

Erik Nihlen, a Swedish tourist who helped open an emergency exit door, told his mother that he and other passengers had feared the aircraft might crash as strong winds buffeted the plane during its second landing attempt.

"When they were up in the air, they thought something was not right," Maria Nihlen said. "Before the second [landing attempt], they knew that they were going to crash and they formed into position for an emergency landing and, well, then it happened."

She said her son -- who suffered only bruises -- was stuck in his seat belt as passengers climbed over him to get to the exit door, which was still closed.

"People were falling over him ... and then the shelf fell over him from above," she said. "But he and his friend managed to actually push hard away the people to be able to open the emergency exit door."

Many of the 43 survivors climbed out of an exit door onto the wing. John Gerard O'Donnell, an Irishman who spoke to the news media from his hospital bed, said that's how he escaped.

"I just can't get my head around what happened," said O'Donnell, whose face and arms were bandaged. "As the plane was landing, you could tell it was in trouble 'cause it kind of landed and came up again. Then the second time, it just smashed."

He said the exit door was "kind of crushed, but we got to squeeze through and onto the wing."

"My friend was outside, I seen him, he got out before me, and next thing it really caught fire then," O'Donnell said. "I just got badly burnt -- my face, my legs, my arms."

He said he had arrived Saturday in Bangkok and intended to spend the week in Phuket with his friend, who underwent surgery for his injuries.

William Harding, who witnessed the crash from another One-Two-GO aircraft that had landed just five minutes before, said he saw flames engulf the plane.

"After about five minutes of burning, there was a small explosion that blew off the top of the plane," he said. "My friend [who also witnessed the crash] ... was saying that in that flight, some of the crew jumped at the last minute and the plane kind of burst into flames."

The aircraft, operated by Thai low-cost carrier One-Two-GO, crashed shortly after landing. The passenger jet skidded off the runway during a landing attempt amid heavy rain and strong crosswinds, according to Thai News Agency, Thailand's national news agency. The aircraft burst into flames shortly after impact, an eyewitness said.

A spokesman for the airline said Flight OG269 left Bangkok at approximately 2:30 p.m. local time and was scheduled to land in Phuket at approximately 3:50 p.m.

He said the plane was carrying 123 passengers and seven crew members.

The island of Phuket is a popular resort destination for international and local tourists.

Video showed dozens of ambulances and fire trucks on the scene, which was enveloped in black smoke.

Two hospitals treating survivors detailed their nationalities as: Australian: 1, Austrian: 1, British: 8, Dutch:1, German: 4, Iranian: 3, Irish: 3, Italian: 1, Swedish: 2, Thai: 14.

Flights from Phuket International Airport were canceled after the crash, affecting four flights to Bangkok and Hong Kong and about 1,000 passengers, according to TNA (Thai News Agency).

The airport is the second-busiest in Thailand, according to the airport's Web site. It's about 32 kilometers from downtown Phuket.

Tragedy in Phuket

50 Foreigners among 88 killed in Phuket plane crash

Eighty-eight people, 50 of them foreigners, were killed when a budget commercial airliner crashlanded at Phuket Airport in bad weather conditions Sunday afternoon, officials said.

Forty-two people survived in the first local disaster for lowcost airline industry since its introduction a few years ago.

One Two Go Flight OG 269 lost balance while touching down and skidded off the runway. The MD82 plane slammed into trees and an earth embankment, exploding and breaking in two, witnesses and officials said.

Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla said 87 people died and 43 people survived. There were a total of 130 passenger and crew on the plane.

Of the 43 survivors, 15 are Thais and 28 foreigners.

The verification of identities of both the dead and injured were far from complete at press time.

Deputy Transport Minister Sansern Wongchaum earlier said that there were 78 foreigners on board. Tourists from Australia, Austria, Britain, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands were being treated at main provincial hospitals.

A surviving Thai passenger said the plane "landed hard" and "bounced" and then skidded off the runway. Air Transport Department chief Chiasak Angkauwan said, "the airplane requested to land but due to the weather in Phuket strong wind and heavy rain maybe the pilot did not see the runway clearly."

One survivor told of a fast drop in altitude by the airplane and sudden brief jerk upward. He said they plane then crashlanded and exploded. He saw several fellow passengers on fire.

It was not immediately clear if the pilot, who was reportedly killed, was attempting to pull the aircraft up in the last minute when it crashlanded. He had reportedly been allowed to circle the airport to wait for improvement in weather conditions.

An official at the Phuket Airport control tower, who asked not to be named, said the pilot had been told of bad weather conditions, especially very strong winds. Shortly before the illfated flight crashlanded, another lowcost airliner originating from Hong Kong had successfully touched down, he said.

Officials said victims could have died on impact, or from suffocation or fire resulting from explosions. According to an initial account, the plane's fuselage was torn open in the accident, some of the survivors were those thrown out through the opening.

Flight OG 269, approached the Phuket airport at about 3.40pm from Bangkok. Phuket had earlier been hit by heavy rains.

Eyewitnesses said the impact of the crash caused the plane to break in two and they heard loud explosions.

Rescue teams and navy personnel were involved in the rescue operation. Bodies were piled up in the smouldering wreckage. All flights in and out of the Phuket airport have been cancelled.

An Irish tourist, identifying himself only as "John", said he was on board the flight. He and his friend survived with bruises all over their bodies.

"We sat on the 18th row. The weather was real bad and there were lots of unusual noises during the landing. Something was obviously wrong [during the landing]," he said. He and his friend escaped through the emergency door.

Meanwhile Transportation Minister Thira Haochareon said Phuket International Airport was temporary closed after the crash. He said the body of the aircraft hit the runway and was on fire. The air traffic control source said the aircraft's right wing made contact with the runway at the initial stage of the accident.

MacDonnel Douglas MD82 has a passenger capacity of 175 seats, with flight ceiling of 37,000 feet and flight distance of 3,500 kilometres.

AFP reported that the accident was witnessed from the sky. It said Marine Keisel, from Paris, was aboard a plane behind the one that crashed and saw the accident happen.

"When the plane landed it caught fire," she told AFP at Phuket airport. "We could see the fire coming out of it. It was chaos inside my plane."

Authorities say they will not make any assumption regarding the cause of the tragedy until investigation is completed, although bad weather was obviously a problem at the airport over the weekend. An American pilot who landed just prior to the One Two Go plane reportedly told CNN that the landing was one of the toughest he had ever undertaken - indicating that the weather conditions were severe.

Like several other airlines, One Two Go has reportedly undergone manpower changes. The boss of One Two Go and Orient Thai budget airlines, Udom Tantisprongchai, is said to have replaced several of his Western and Thai pilots - allegedly to cut costs and reduce the chance of work disputes _ with crews with Indonesian and Philippine pilots.

However, authorities insisted it was too soon to presume anything, including whether human errors played a part in the tragedy.

Certain reports said the pilot was given permission to abort the landing in the final minutes.

Communications between the pilot and the air traffic controller and their judgements _ information contained in the black box could shed some light on the tragedy. Some aviation sources said an instruction or decision to land in Krabi could have been taken in extreme weather conditions.

Last night a swarm of media had descended on the office of One Two Go, near the intersection of Asoke and Sukhumvit. With the high death toll and the fact that it took place in the heart of Thailand's tourism industry, the issue of whether or not there were human errors involved could become hot up very soon, the aviation sources said.

The Nation, September 17, 2007