Father of Canadian missing in crash anxiously awaits news

Foreign Affairs still working on confirming status

Last Updated: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 | 5:09 AM PT

CBC News

The father of a missing Vancouver woman believed to have boarded the Thai airplane that crashed Sunday says the family is "numb" with fear that his daughter is dead but still holding out hope that she may be alive.

Larisa Fayad was in Thailand for a vacation after travelling to the Philippines for a performance with a Vancouver dance troup.
(Firehall Arts Theatre)

Foreign Affairs officials have not released a name, but say they are in contact with local authorities to confirm a Canadian's status.

But family members said Monday the missing woman was Larisa Fayad, a well-known member of British Columbia's arts community.

Fayad's name is on the passenger manifest of the One-Two-Go Airlines plane that crashed at the airport on the resort island of Phuket in southern Thailand, killing at least 89 people, including 53 tourists, and injuring 41.

Her name is listed in seat 6D, near the front of the aircraft. Her bags were tagged and weighed for the flight, indicating there's little chance she missed it.

"Yes, she was on the flight and she's on the victims' list but I don't know if it's been confirmed or not," her father, Foued Fayad, who was given the information by other relatives in British Columbia, said.

But as he waited anxiously in Vancouver for news on Monday night, he was clearly fearing the worst. "It's the worst day in my life. I am numb, I don't know, I can't find the words to describe it, she's my first daughter. My daughters are my life," he told CBC News.

However, several news reports have said that there is still one unidentified survivor. Foued Fayed says he is praying that is Larisa.

Larisa, a 31-year-old technical and lighting director, was in Thailand for a short vacation after travelling in the Philippines for a performance with a Vancouver dance troupe called Erasga.

According to friends, she is extremely artistic, something she may have inherited from her father.

"I am a musician. I have a band and I was trained in classical music," Foued Fayed said.

'Everything went dark'

Meanwhile, fellow passenger Mildred Anne Furlong, 23, of Prince George, B.C., survived the crash by escaping through a window. She is recovering in hospital.

Her boyfriend, Chatree Suksawat, 26, from Thailand, also survived. 

Canadian plane crash survivor Mildred Furlong, 23, reads a newspaper report about the incident while her boyfriend Chatree Suksawat, 26, who is from Thailand, stands nearby at Bangkok Phuket Hospital on Monday.
(Audra Ang/Associated Press)

"As soon as we hit, everything went dark and everything fell," Furlong said.

The plane started filling with smoke and fires broke out, she said. A passenger in front of her caught fire, while one in the back kicked out a plane window.

Authorities found the plane's two flight data recorders on Sunday, but said it was too early to say what caused the crash.

Thai Transport Minister Theera Haocharoen said the black boxes are being sent to the United States for analysis.

"Hopefully, we will learn in a few weeks the cause of [the] accident," he said.

Wind shear — the rapid change in wind speed that can have an impact on takeoffs and landings — has been cited as a possible cause of the accident by Kajit Habnanonda, president of Orient-Thai Airlines, which owns the budget airline involved in the crash.

The One-Two-Go Airlines flight was carrying 130 people, including seven crew members, to Phuket from Bangkok when the plane skidded off the runway in heavy rain and wind. It then ran through a low retaining wall and split in two.

The pilot and co-pilot on the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 jetliner were among the dead, including passengers from 10 countries such as the United States, Israel and Australia. 

Budget airlines growing in Southeast Asia

Parinwit Chusaeng, who was slightly burned, said some passengers were engulfed in flames.

"I stepped over them on the way out of the plane," Parinwit told The Nation TV channel. "I was afraid that the airplane was going to explode, so I ran away."

Piyanooch Ananpakdee, a co-ordinator at Bangkok Phuket Hospital, said there were five people in critical condition at her hospital, including a British woman with burns to more than 60 per cent of her body and another person with broken ribs.

None of Thailand's budget airlines had previously had a major accident, but there have been several deadly crashes in Indonesia. Budget airlines in Southeast Asia have experienced rapid growth in recent years.

Many budget airlines use older planes that have been leased or purchased after years of use by other airlines.

According to Thai and U.S. aviation registration data, the plane that crashed in Phuket was manufactured and put into use in 1983 and began flying in Thailand in March this year.

One-Two-Go Airlines began operations in December 2003.

With files from the Canadian Press