Three Irish tourists survived today's plane crash in Thailand, which killed and injured at least 88 people, according to a partial list of survivors released by the Thai Ministry of Public Health.
Firefighters and rescuers attend the scene of a plane crashed at Phuket airport in southern Thailand
However, a fourth Irish passenger is missing following the crash, a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said.
One the survivors has been named as John O'Donnell. The spokesman said there were no details on where in Ireland the survivors are from.
The budget airliner crashed and burst into flames on the Thai resort island of Phuket in torrential rain.
The flight from Bangkok was carrying 123 passengers and seven crew when it crashed at Phuket airport. A total of 78 of the passengers were foreign holidaymakers, most of them European.
Thailand's Public Health Minister Dr Mongkol Na Songkhla said 87 bodies were retrieved from the debris of the aircraft.
Phuket's Deputy Governor Worapot Ratthaseema said that he did not immediately know many foreigners died, but that the dead included Irish, Israeli, Australian and British passengers. These deaths have not yet been formally confirmed.According to unconfirmed reports from local media, six Irish people are in hospital. Government officials only listed one Irish person among the injured.
Other survivors include Thais, Britons, Australians, Iranians and Germans. Both the pilot and the co-pilot survived the crash.
Thailand's National News Bureau has reported that, five of the 28 people admitted to the Bangkok-Phuket hospital are in a critical condition with severe burns. The majority of the rest of the survivors are suffering from broken bones and concussion.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 plane was approaching Phuket airport when the pilot asked to abort the landing, aviation official Chiasak Angkauwan told Thai television.
"The control tower allowed it but the aircraft fell to the runway and the body broke," he said.
Survivors described a chaotic situation, trying to escape from windows as fires and smoke consumed the plane.
TV images showed the crumpled and smoking fuselage of the One-Two-Go airlines plane surrounded by fire trucks and emergency workers. Part of the plane could be seen in trees alongside the runway.
One of the survivors, an Irish man identified only as John, told Thailand's ITV television channel it was clear there was a problem before the attempt to land.
"You could tell there was a problem. The plane was flying around trying to land. It was making some noises and it was bad rain," said the man, who was travelling with a friend who also survived. It is not known if the friend was also Irish.
"The plane was on fire, but I managed to get through. I might have come out on the wing," he said.
One-Two-Go Airlines is one of several budget airlines started up in the past few years after Thailand's airline sector was liberalised. It started operations in December 2003, and is the domestic subsidiary of Orient-Thai Airlines, a low-cost regional carrier based in Thailand.