05/08/2009

Relief For Irish Survivors Of Thai Plane Crash

Three Irish women on a Bangkok Airways flight have escaped with their lives.

Aoife Creamer, 25, from Rush in north Co Dublin, her 20-year-old sister Orlagh and their friend 23-year-old Lesley Dowdall from Swords, were aboard the flight landing on the Taiwanese island of Koh Samui, when it slid off the runway of an airport in Koi Samui.

The pilot was killed and several other people were seriously injured when the plane smashed into an unused control tower.

However, all three Irish women survived and walked away from the crash virtually unscathed.

The women were sitting in row ten of the plane, and made a lucky escape as the front of the plane up to row four had been crushed in the crash, leaving passengers badly injured.

The three women were travelling to the holiday island as part of a six-week trip to South-East Asia.

The women paid tribute to the emergency services at the airport that acted rapidly in responding to the incident.

The party now plans to cut short their holiday and return to Ireland as soon as possible.

(DW/KMcA)

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