The wreckage of a One-Two-Go passenger plane sits on the side of the runway after it crashed while attempting to land at Phuket International Airport in southern Thailand, yesterday. - AP Photos

PHUKET, Thailand (AP):

Survivors of a plane crash yesterday in which 88 people died on the Thai resort island of Phuket described scenes of passengers on fire and leaping from exits to save themselves.

One-Two-Go Airlines flight OG269 was carrying 123 passengers and seven crew to Phuket from the Thai capital, Bangkok, said Monrudee Gettuphan, spokeswoman for Airports of Thailand. There were 78 foreigners on board, she said.

The deputy governor of Phuket province, Worapot Ratthaseema, said the dead included French, German, Israeli, Australian and British nationals. Their names were not released.

It was not immediately clear how many foreigners had died, he said. However, Thailand's Public Health Ministry issued a list of almost 30 foreign survivors.

Poor weather

Officials said the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 was attempting to land in driving wind and rain, but skidded off the runaway, ran though a low retaining wall and broke into two parts. Survivors said they escaped from emergency exits as the plane caught fire.

About 60 bodies were retrieved quickly, but it took hours to get the other bodies out. Three bodies remained in the wreckage about nine hours after the accident, said Deputy Transport Minister Sansern Wongcha-um.

Survivors said the plane landed hard and out of control.

"Our plane was landing, you can tell it was in trouble, because it kind of landed, then came up again the second time," said John Gerard O'Donnell of Ireland, speaking from his hospital bed.

"I came out on the wing of the plane ... the exit door, it was kind of crushed and I had to squeeze through. And saw my friend, he was outside. He just got out before me. And next thing, it really caught fire, then I just got badly burned, my face, my legs, my arms."

Stampede

Piyanooch Ananpakdee, a coordinator at Bangkok Phuket Hospital, where 30 of the survivors were taken, said they told her passengers had stepped on each other as they tried to flee the aircraft as it filled with black smoke.

Many of those injured had broken legs and similar injuries from jumping from the burning plane, she said.

Officials said it was too early to establish the cause of the crash, but some said the weather was likely a factor.

Regardless of the cause, the accident was likely to raise fresh questions about the safety of budget airlines in Southeast Asia, which have burgeoned in the past few years. None of Thailand's budget airlines, including One-Two-Go, had previously suffered a major accident, but there have been several calamitous crashes in Indonesia.

A Thai forensic worker walks among bodies of victims in yesterday's plane crash.