Britons hurt in island plane crash.

FOUR British passengers were hurt when a plane crashed into a building after landing on the Thai holiday island of Samui, killing the captain.

The Bangkok Airways flight touched down in stormy weather yesterday and hit the airport's old air traffic control tower, which had been converted into a fire station.

The co-pilot and six tourists were hurt.

A police spokesman said: "The heavy damage was at the front of the plane where the pilot was. It looks like he suffered from the impact."

Samui, 300 miles south of Bangkok, is in the Gulf of Thailand and popular with foreign tourists.

Puttipong Prasartthong-Osoth, managing director of Bangkok Airways, said the foreign passengers were from Italy, Spain, Switzerland, France, Germany, Britain and Israel. He said four passengers - two Britons, one Italian and one Swiss - suffered broken legs, while two other Britons suffered less severe injuries. The co-pilot also had leg injuries.

The ATR72-500 twin-turboprop had 68 passengers, two pilots and two crew members on board and was flying from Krabi, another popular resort area in southern Thailand.

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Crash landing: Airport and emergency workers scramble to help those hurt when a Bangkok Airways craft landed in Thailand.