- Title: THAILAND: PLANE CRASH SURVIVORS DESCRIBE THEIR ORDEAL
- Date: 12th December 1998
- Summary: GV: SOLDIERS ON BOAT GV: SOLDIERS AND RESCUE WORKERS PULLING ROPE WHICH BREAKS GV/MV: VARIOUS VIEWS SOLDIERS AND RESCUE WORKERS CLEARING WRECKAGE (9 SHOTS) GV/CU: BODY IN AMBULANCE (2 SHOTS) GV: AMBULANCES AT SITE GV/CU: BODIES BEING WRAPPED IN MORGUE (2 SHOTS) SV: SURVIVORS IN HOSPITAL BEDS GV/MV/CU: VARIOUS VIEWS SURVIVORS IN HOSPITAL (5 SHOTS) SV: AUSTRALIAN SURVIVOR LUCINDA RHODES SPEAKING ON TELEPHONE CU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) LUCINDA RHODES DESCRIBING CRASH SAYING: "(The plane) made the noise it makes when it's about to land and then all of a sudden it went straight back up in the air again really suddenly. The pilot came on and said that visibility was poor and he was going to give it another try so in about ten minutes we tried it again and exactly the same thing happened when we went to land. We went straight back up in the air again and he came back on and said it (visibility) was really, really poor and he was going to give it one go and if it didn't work we were going to go back to Bangkok. Then we just turned around and the plane just sort of jumped around and I don't really remember anything after that and coming around - and half the plane was in a tree, it sort of split, I think it split lengthwise." MCU/GV: (SOUNDBITE) (English) SECOND AUSTRALIAN SURVIVOR MELANIE MCNAMEE SPEAKING ABOUT HER INJURIES SAYING: "I can't bring myself to look at it yet, they were chopping away at it this morning. Pretty sore, pretty happy that I'm still alive."/ MORE SURVIVORS ON STRETCHERS IN HOSPITAL (2 SHOTS) MCU: JAPANESE SURVIVOR KAWASAKI KATSUHIRO BANGKOK, THAILAND (DECEMBER 12, 1998)(REUTERS) GV: PLANES ON TARMAC AT BANGKOK AIRPORT MCU: RELATIVES LOOKING AT NOTICE ON BOARD MV: RELATIVES IN AIRPORT LOUNGE (2 SHOTS) CU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) PERMAMENENT SECRETARY OF COMMUNICATIONS MINISTRY MAHIDOL CHANVRARANGKUL saying: "I don't have the set number of casualites at the moment. It has been reported lastnight and this morning we have heard reports from the Thai international people. (Any cause of the crash?) No, it's too early to say that. We have to do more investigation with the authorities." MV: PEOPLE WAITING IN AIRPORT LOUNGE CU: WOMAN WEEPING AND SPEAKING ON PHONE GV: PEOPLE IN AIRPORT LOUNG, CHRISTMAS TREE IN FOREGROUND
- Embargoed: 27th December 1998 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: SURAT THANI AND BANGKOK, THAILAND
- City:
- Country: Thailand
- Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
- Reuters ID: LVAE3VBK3HGH1GAQS6M1LVQSKQ0N
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: Forty-four people, including at least nine foreigners, survived a plane crash at a popular Thai tourist resort, the country's transport minister and officials said on Saturday (December 12).
Hundreds of rescue workers waded through muddy swamp in the early hours to pull charred bodies from the wreckage of the Thai Airways plane which crashed on Friday carrying 146 passengers and crew.
They pulled out eight more bodies, including the mangled remains of the pilot from the smashed cockpit and fuselage of the A310-200 Airbus, Reuters correspondents at the scene said.
It brought to more than 70 the number of corpses recovered since the plane crashed late on Friday.
Transport and Communications Minister Suthep Thaugsuban told reporters 72 bodies had been removed from the aircraft.
Of the total, 15 had been identified.One was a Westerner.
Communications Ministry secretary Mahidol Chanvrarangkul said it was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash.
The plane was carrying 132 passengers and 14 crew.
Officials said the survivors included three Japanese, two Israelis, two Australians, one German and a Briton.
The Australian survivors Lucinda Rhodes and Melanie McNamee, both 24 years old from Sydney, told Reuters they had planned to spend the last week of their nine-month round the world holiday on the Thai resort island of Koh Samui off Surat Thani province.
Instead, they ended up battered and bruised in hospital.
Lucinda Rhodes described from her hospital bed how the plane had attempted to land twice but the pilot had pulled out both times because of bad visibility.Before the third attempt the plane crashed.
Local officials said those unaccounted for were believed to be in the burned fuselage of the jet and were feared dead.
Flight number TG 261 to Surat Thani from Bangkok plunged into a fallow paddy field in bad weather around 6.45 pm, three km (two miles) from the airport and burst into flames after failing to make an emergency landing.
Surat Thani airport serves the island resort of Koh Samui and other nearby tourist destinations.
Rescue workers from police, the military and private organisations battling through thick mud and chest-high flood waters amid a steady drizzle found the plane's flight recorder near the wreckage.
The European Consortium Airbus Industrie said in a statement from its Toulouse headquarters in southwest France that it was sending five specialists to help in the crash inquiry.
It said that until an official investigation report was available, it would not enter into speculation as to the cause of the tragedy. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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