Thai crash investigators say alerts not all working

PHUKET: Thai officials pored over evidence today trying to piece together what led a plane to crash killing 89 people, as it emerged that systems to detect dangerous winds were not fully working.

Forensic police edged closer to identifying the dead, of whom up to 57 were foreigners, as officials studied whether human error, foul weather or airport malfunctions -- or a combination -- caused Sunday's crash.

Vutichai Singhamany, a safety director at the Department of Aviation, told AFP the pilot had put the landing gear down on approach to Phuket airport, but retracted it and tried to pull up.

"The wheels did not touch the runway," Vutichai said. "Then the plane tried to pull up and the accident happened."

Vutichai confirmed that three of six systems designed to detect a dangerous weather phenomenon known as wind shear were not working when the passenger jet crashed, but said that may not have caused the tragedy.

"Aircraft are equipped with their own warning systems, which do not depend on the ground ones," he said.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 plane, operated by budget carrier One-Two-Go, slammed onto the runway in heavy rain before ploughing into an embankment and breaking up in flames, killing 89 of the 130 people on board.

Grieving relatives are also awaiting results of the investigation into the disaster on the popular holiday island.

A senior forensic police officer told AFP they had identified all the Thai victims of the crash, but the identities of 34 foreigners who died were still unknown.