Survivor and Investigator Statements
According to Vutichai Singhamany, a safety director at Thailand's Department of Civil Aviation, the pilot had deployed the landing gear on approach to Phuket airport runway 27, but had retracted it whilst attempting a go-around. Singhamany added that the wheels had not touched the runway and that the accident had happened moments after the pilot raised the nose of the aircraft to abort the landing. It appears that the plane was caught in wind shear, causing it to sink abruptly.
23-year-old Parinyawich Chusaeng, who survived the crash on flight 269, told Agence France Presse
"The plane just dropped really fast and then jerked back up. The right wing hit a tree and then the plane hit the ground. The people all around me were burning. Some on the floor and some standing, and they were on fire."
Chaisak Angsuwan, director general of the Air Transport Authority of Thailand said:
"The visibility was poor as the pilot attempted to land. He decided to make a go-around but the plane lost balance and crashed. It was torn into two parts."
A witness, William Harding, said:
"The inside (of the plane) was totally on fire and about five minutes of burning, there was a small explosion that blew off top of the plane."
Canadian survivor, Mildred Anne Furlong, said:
"We started to go for the landing and just about hit the runway, but couldn't make it, so he lifted back up. We started to circle. I thought he was going to circle back around and try again, and then we took a sharp right and we started going for the ground."
"We bounced once and then went straight into an embankment with trees and bushes."
"It was raining really hard. We saw a couple of people who were on fire. Just a handful of us made it out. I counted 17 or 20 who had made it out on their own.".
Read more about this topic: One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269
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