With the arrival of a flight boarding Thai prime minister Surayud Chulanont on Monday afternoon, the Phuket International Airport in the southern resort city has resumed operation after it temporarily closed in the aftermath of a disastrous plane crash Sunday afternoon that killed 90 persons.
On an Airbus 317 of the Air Force, the Thai premier left the Don Muang Military Airport on the suburb of Bangkok for Phuket at 3:30 p.m. (0830GMT) Monday to visit injured passengers hospitalized after the plane of One-Two-Go budget flight OG 269 crashed in a failed landing attempt at the Phuket airport Sunday afternoon.
The PM's flight arrived at the Phuket airport around 4:40 p.m. (0940GMT) Monday.
The airport, in a highly popular tourist destination, closed down from 4:00 p.m. (09OOGMT) Sunday after the crash happened at around 3:30 p.m. (0830GMT). All flights in and out of the airport was canceled for the day and those scheduled on Monday have been readjusted.
Airports of Thailand on Monday earlier announced that airport will resume its operations at 5:00 p.m. (1000GMT) Monday.
Ninety persons were killed in the crash, including 55 foreigners from various countries. Only some 40 of 123 passengers on board the ill-fated MD 82 plane survived, according to Thai News Agency. Both the two pilots out of the seven crew members were killed, one of them an Indonesian.
However, News network The Nation quoted Deputy Transportation Minister Sansern Wongcha-um as saying there were now 89 victims confirmed dead, 31 of them were foreigners and 58 others were Thais.
The disaster is the worst air travel incident in the country in nearly 10 years, and the first occurred to a budget airliner since the business was introduced to the country a few years ago.
Initial reports said the two-engine plane, operated by domestic budget airline One-Two-Go, was carrying 130 persons aboard, including 123 passengers and seven crew. when There were 79 foreigners on board.
Rescue finished Monday afternoon as emergency workers retrieved the last victim's body from the plane wreckage.
Investigation of the crash cause is still underway. Authorities would not suspect the actual cause until the investigation concluded, although initial reports had cited heavy rains and poor visibility at the landing time as a suspected reason.
Phuket is an island located on the eastern coast of Indian Ocean in southern Thailand and one of Southeast Asia's most popular tourist destinations. Phuket has been under the spell of stormy weather, common for the local rainy season, in latest days.
The One-Two-Go airline, a domestic subsidiary to Bangkok-based Orient Thai Airways and Thailand's first low cost airline which started operating no-frill flights in 2003, runs the Bangkok- Phuket flights from Don Muang airport, once known as the Bangkok International Airport, six times a week.
Source: Xinhua
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