Samui Airport reopened

SAMUI / PHUKET: Samui Airport resumed operations at 2 pm today, Bangkok Airways announced in a press release.

The first departing flight was Bangkok Airways PG100, which took off at 2 pm, bound for Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.

The co-pilot of the Bangkok Airways flight that crashed into an abandoned control tower yesterday afternoon remains in critical condition at Bangkok Hospital in the capital. He will undergo surgery on his chest and abdomen tonight, the hospital announced.

Bangkok Hospital CEO Chatree Duangnet said the co-pilot, Thanawat Premreuthai, remained in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

He suffered multiple bone fractures, a broken right arm, broken left hip, and a broken rib that pierced through his right lung, causing internal bleeding in his abdomen.

His liver was also torn from the impact, he said.

Mr Thanawat, who received emergency surgery at the Bangkok Samui Hospital, will now undergo abdominal surgery at Bangkok Hospital.

Flight Captain Chartchai Punsuwan was killed when the aircraft, an ATR72-500, hit an unused air-traffic-control tower at the airport, a privately-run facility owned by Bangkok Airways.

Also injured in the crash and being treated at Bangkok Hospital Samui are the following passengers and Thai crew members:

Linda Thongkorn, 28, crew member

Supanasa Namjit, 25, crew member

Mr Nicolas Havel, 39, Briton

Mr Panteli Pantelis, 39, Briton

Mrs Elodie Lacovangelo, 41, Swiss

Mrs Mirella Gastaldi, 39, Italian

Mr Thanawat Premrudee, 35, co-pilot

Miss Joyce Goosleng, 26, Briton

Miss Claire Ballantye, 38, Briton

List of injured passengers at Ban Don Inter Hospital:

Mr Abreheam Gzaaf, 42, Dutch

Mr Lucar Gzaaf, 11, Dutch

— The Nation