BANGKOK - The crash of a Thai budget airliner on the resort island of Phuket, killing 88 people, was Thailand's worst air accident in nine years.
The MD-82 skidded off the runway as it landed in driving rain, breaking in two and slamming into a wooded embankment. The death toll from Sunday's crash included 55 foreigners.
Following is a chronology of some of Asia's worst air crashes in the past decade.

1997
Sept 3: A Tupolev 134-B operated by Vietnam Airlines crashes near Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh, killing 65 people.
Sept 26: An Airbus A300 of Indonesian national carrier Garuda, apparently blinded by forest fires, plunges to earth in northern Sumatra, killing 234 people.
Dec 19: A Singaporean SilkAir Boeing 737-300 crashes between Jakarta and Singapore, leaving 104 dead.

1998
Feb 2: A Cebu Pacific Air DC-9 crashes in the Philippines, killing 104.
Feb 16: A Taiwanese China Airlines Airbus A300 flying in from Bali crashes on landing at Taipei, killing 202 people.
Dec 11: A Thai Airways Airbus A310-200 crashes on landing at Surat Thani in the south of the country. A total of 101 people die but 45 escape.

1999
Feb 24: A mid-air explosion downs a China Southwest Airlines Tupolev 154 on a domestic flight between Chengdu and Wenzhou, killing 64.

2000
April 19: An Air Philippines Boeing 737-200 crashes en route between Manila and Davao, leaving 131 dead.
June 22: A Chinese Yun-7 crashes near Wuhan in central China, killing 51.
July 17: An Indian Airlines Boeing 737-200 comes down near Patna, eastern India, killing 57.
Oct 30: A Boeing 747 operated by Singapore Airlines crashes on take-off at Taipei, killing 78 of its 179 passengers and crew.

2002
April 15: An Air China plane from Beijing crashes near Pusan in South Korea, leaving 129 dead but 37 are pulled out of the Boeing 767-200.
May 7: All 112 people on board a China Northern Airlines MD-80 die when it plunges into the sea en route from Beijing to Dalian in the northeast.
May 25: A China Airlines Boeing 747-200 crashes into the sea off Taiwan, leaving 225 dead.

2005
Sept 5: A Boeing 737-200 operated by the Indonesian airline Mandala crashes in Sumatra, killing 150 people.

2007
Jan 1: An Indonesian Adam Air Boeing 737 with 102 passengers and crew disappears off radar screens on a domestic flight. The black box data recorders are recovered nearly eight months later.

doc-or/km/bgs

09/17/2007 01:50 GMT