Thai crash survivors recall chaos

Survivors of Sunday's Phuket plane crash have spoken of their ordeal in escaping the flames that engulfed the plane when it crashed on landing.

Flames raced through the plane moments after the crash

Australian passenger Robert Borland, 48, was rescued by an unknown passenger who dragged him from the burning wreckage of One-Two-Go flight OG269.

Mr Borland, 48, said his trousers caught fire and he dragged himself to an exit where he was pulled to safety by his mystery rescuer.

"People were screaming. There was a fire in the cabin and my clothes caught fire," he said from hospital in Phuket where he is being treated for a broken arm and burns to his legs.

Mr Borland has already survived one disaster in Phuket - he was there on 26 December 2004 when the Asian tsunami struck.

His mother in Perth, Australia, said he had done the same thing he did after the tsunami - he phoned to tell her he was okay.

'Fast descent'

Other passengers described the terrible weather as the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 descended to the runway.

"The airplane was landing in heavy rain," said Nong Khaonual, who was on the plane with his wife.

I saw passengers engulfed in fire as I stepped over them on the way out of the plane Parinwit Chusaeng

"It landed too fast. I have never seen anything like this. It descended very fast," he told Thailand's Nation TV.

"Just before we touched the runway we felt the plane try to lift up and it skidded off the runway.

"My wife was half-conscious and I dragged her out of the emergency exit. There was a man behind us and he was on fire."

Around 10 people sitting at the back of the plane escaped with him, some of whom were hurt when they jumped to the ground, he said.

Other survivors described scenes of chaos as they scrambled to escape the inferno.

"I saw passengers engulfed in fire as I stepped over them on the way out of the plane," Parinwit Chusaeng said.

"I was afraid that the airplane was going to explode so I ran away."

Once he had reached safety, he looked back and "saw the plane in flames and there was a lot of smoke".

Window escape

Many of the survivors have burn injuries.

"There was a lot of smoke in the plane," said John O'Donnell, from Ireland.

"I got out through the doors and I came out on to the wing. I got very badly burned on my face, my arms, my back, my legs."

Canadian Mildred Furlong escaped through a broken window

Canadian Mildred Furlong said she escaped through a broken window onto a wing after groping her way through the dark as smoke and flames filled the fuselage.

From hospital in Phuket, where she was being treated for minor injuries, she described a passenger in front of her covered in flames and another one bleeding from a head wound shouting: "My boyfriend. My boyfriend."

"As soon as we hit, everything went dark and everything fell," said the 23-year-old waitress from Prince George in British Columbia.

"I felt faint. You felt like you were going to pass out right away. I've never felt anything this intense," she told Associated Press.

Once out of the plane, she was reunited with her Thai boyfriend, Chatri Suksawas, who suffered smoke inhalation after staying behind to help others escape.

"We looked at each other and we thought our Gods are both looking after us."

New blow

The scene left passengers in nearby planes terrified.

"We could see the fire coming out of it," Parisian Marine Keisel told AFP. "It was chaos inside my plane."

Many of the crash jet passengers were foreign tourists drawn to the island's beaches and hotels.

Many of these were hard-hit by the Asian tsunami in 2004, and this crash will come as a new blow to the island of Phuket.