THREE IRISH women survived a plane crash in Thailand yesterday in which the pilot was killed and seven other passengers were injured.
The incident occurred after the plane slid off the runway into a disused control tower on the popular tourist island of Koh Samui, some 700km south of Bangkok.
The Bangkok Airways aircraft, flying from the southern Thai resort of Krabi, left the runway and became embedded, nose down, in the old control tower after touching down in heavy rain and stormy conditions, Thai aviation officials said.
"The pilot was killed when the plane hit the unmanned control tower," Kanika Kaemawuttanont, director general of the Department of Aviation, told Reuters.
A police spokesman said: "The heavy damage was at the front of the plane where the pilot was. It looks like he suffered from the impact."
The co-pilot and six tourists, including two Britons and two Dutch people, were taken to hospital where their injuries were said to be minor.
The ATR-72 craft was carrying four crew and 68 passengers, including the Irish women: Aoife Creamer (25), from Rush in Co Dublin, her sister, Orlagh (20), and Lesley Dowdall (23), from Swords in Dublin.
The three had been travelling around southeast Asia in recent months.
Ms Creamer, a teacher at St Brendan's primary school in Loughshinny, said many passengers panicked following the crash and ran from the aircraft fearing a fire would break out.
"We were in the 10th row, about six rows back from where [ the tower] came in through our side of the plane, the left-hand side," she said. "The tower was basically inside the plane so I don't know how anybody who was sitting in those front rows was alive.
"We tried to calm people down . . . Everyone was pushing then and we were just trying to get people off. We ran down the runway. They were telling us to 'run, run, run'. I think they were afraid it was going to going to explode too . . . But I never thought we were goners."
Ms Creamer said she suffered bruising in the incident, her sister hurt her knee and Ms Dowdall had a sprained wrist.
A fourth friend, Aine Deasy (21) from Swords, had been travelling with the group but she left Thailand three days ago after suffering a serious head injury in a fall.
Ms Creamer said the group intended to cut their trip short following the crash. "The airport is closed today but we're going to go back to Bangkok as soon as we can and then we're heading home."
- (additional reporting PA)
