Several wounded in Thai jet crash

2009-08-04 11:19:50

Several passengers have been injured after a Thai domestic airliner skidded off the runway and hit a control tower on a popular tourist island.

The Bangkok Airways flight with about 70 people on board crashed during landing on Koh Samui, reports said.

A company official told reporters that all passengers were evacuated, but said an unspecified number were wounded.

The plane was arriving from the western Thai town of Krabi, which is also a popular tourist destination.

"The plane just pinched the control tower but there was no fire," Sakchai Jorpalit, district chief of the Thai tourist island, told the French news agency AFP.

He said most of the wounded were tourists, adding that some were hospitalised with non-life threatening injuries.

An airport official told the Associated Press that it was raining heavily when the plane landed around 1400 local time (0800 GMT).

The resort island of Koh Samui lies some 300 miles (480km) south of Bangkok.