Crash victim moved to burns unit

Bethan Jones set off on a six-month trip with Alex Collins

A 22-year-old woman who suffered severe burns in a plane crash in Thailand has been airlifted to hospital in Bangkok.

Bethan Jones, from Porth, Rhondda, was travelling with her boyfriend Alex Collins, 22, from Maesteg near Bridgend, who is missing.

Some 89 people, including eight British nationals, are thought to have died in the crash in Phuket on Sunday.

Ms Jones was flown by military aircraft to a special unit which treats patients with more than 40% skin burns.

She is among 42 people who survived the crash and the fire.

She was transferred to the Bangkok General Hospital from Phuket along with four other patients, medical officials said.

Bethan Jones was transferred to a specialist unit in Bangkok

Members of her family are believed to be flying out to Thailand to be with her.

Friends and neighbours have told how the couple had just begun a six-month "trip of a lifetime".

Thailand was the first leg of their journey and they had flown out only a few days before.

Mr Collins' parents, Richard and Margaret, have appealed for privacy "at this extremely traumatic time".

They issued a statement though South Wales Police who have appointed family liaison officers to assist them.

The statement said: "At this time our son Alex is missing. We have no further news or information and we would request that, at this extremely traumatic time for the family, we are left alone."

Officials in Thailand said they were still trying to identify those who died.

Family, friends and neighbours said Mr Collins had been working in call centres over the past year to raise money for the trip around the world with his girlfriend.

The plane appeared to slide off the runway in Phuket, Thailand

Non Batten, who lives across the road from the family, described Mr Collins as a "lovely boy".

"They were going to Australia and then coming back via the United States - it was a trip of a lifetime for them," she said.

"We are all now waiting with bated breath for good news."

The plane skidded off the runway on landing at Phuket in heavy rain on Sunday.

Flight OG 269, operated by Thai budget airline One-Two-Go, had flown to Phuket from the Thai capital of Bangkok.

The accident is Thailand's worst aviation disaster since December 1998 when 101 people died after a Thai Airways plane crashed on landing near another southern resort.

Airline officials said the pilot of the plane had been warned about strong winds before he tried to land.