Thai Plane Crash Kills 88

PHUKET, Thailand - A plane carrying foreign tourists crashed Sunday as it tried to land in stormy weather on the resort island of Phuket, engulfing some passengers in flames while others kicked out windows to escape the smoke-filled cabin. At least 88 people were killed.

The budget One-Two-Go Airlines flight was carrying 123 passengers and seven crew members from the capital Bangkok to Phuket when it skidded off the runway in driving wind and rain, officials said. It then ran through a low retaining wall and split in two

Of all the countries on earth, why is it that bad things keep happening to wonderful, loving Thailand? Among the 98 countries I have visited Thailand rockets to the top three of those I enjoyed the most and its the only country that caused me to have a tear in my eye when I left it.

I was in Phuket in October 2005, 10 months after the Christmas 2004 tsunami swept ashore creating havoc and bedlam all over the island. Ten months later, during my visit, there were signs all over the island proclaiming proudly that "Phuket is Back!" Now this has to happen.

Looking at this picture I think it was taken from about where the Thai Royal Orchid Business Class lounge sits in the Phuket airport (no alcohol served there). The heavily forested small hills behind the wreckage look eerily familiar. The picture is taken looking north. The Andaman Sea is to the left (west) about 1000 feet from where the plane crashed. When I landed and departed from Phuket we landed to the right in this picture, coming in off the ocean and landing toward the northeast. If my bearings are correct and the plane followed the same landing pattern I was on, then it must have crumpled immediately on touching down on the tarmac - it just wasn't that far from the end of the west end of the runway.

I'll never understand why bad things happen to good people like the wonderful, loving, Thais. I'll also never understand why people like George Bush or Dick Cheney couldn't have been riding on this MD-80 this morning instead of all the others.