Thai Plane Crashes Into A Control Tower (Photo and Video)

The pilot of a Thai plane has been killed and seven passengers injured as it skidded off the runway while landing on the tourist island of Koh Samui.

The Bangkok Airways flight, carrying 72 people, hit an old and unmanned control tower amid reports of heavy rain.

The plane had taken off from the southern Thai town of Krabi, another popular tourist destination.

Officials said many of the injured were tourists. At least two Britons were among them, their travel agency said.

The nationalities of the others were not immediately known, but none were said to be seriously hurt.

Bad weather

“Sadly we have learnt that the pilot of the aircraft has died,” said Kannikar Kemavuthanon, the director general of the Department of Civil Aviation.

Ms Kanikka said the Bangkok Airways Flight PG266 was an ATR-72 twin-turboprop with 68 passengers, two pilots and two crew members on board.

“The weather was very bad during landing with heavy rain and wind,” she said.

The plane hit a building that had once been used as an air traffic control tower, but is now part of a fire-fighting station, a local police official said.

“The heavy damage was at the front of the plane where the pilot was. It looks like he suffered from the impact,” police Maj Col Sayan Sartsri told AP news agency.

The crash happened at around 1415 local time (0815 GMT).

Local reports said some of the injured passengers suffered broken legs. The wounded were taken to various hospitals on the island.

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

The airport runway was closed after the accident and at least one Thai Airways flight was cancelled.