The crash has triggered a debate about how Southeast Asia's budget airlines actually function. The One-Two-Go plane, a McDonnell Douglas, or MD-80, was over two decades old and not equipped with the latest aviation safety technology.

Robert Heath, an Australian expert on plane crashes, explained: "If we look at the MD-80, it's about 20-25 years old so it need not have the most modern equipment on board, including weather radar of the sort the more modern airline have. Secondly, it has narrow exits to get out so if you've got your typical tourist on board you can even have jamming in terms of getting out of the aircraft."

But the accident rate is about the same -- whether we're talking about commercial passenger flights or low-cost flights. Competition among low-cost airlines in Thailand has increased in the past years. More and more Thais are flying on holiday and can choose from a variety of low-cost flights. One way of winning the price war is to cut personnel costs.

Black box analysis

The analysis of the black boxes in the US will reveal how well trained the crew members were and whether they were able to rise to the occasion. They were rescued from the plane wreck on Monday morning local time. So far, adverse weather conditions seem to be to blame for the accident. When the pilot tried to land, there were extreme winds and rain.

Robert Heath explained that "the first condition is obviously the local weather conditions, then the local conditions operating at the airport, and the third, the airline, the carrier, and the skill and training of the pilots," Heath said.

Both pilots are thought to have died in the crash. So far, the dead are known to include four Swedes, three Americans, two Iranians, a French national, at least one Australian and a Briton, as well as 26 Thais. A temporary morgue has been set up at Phuket airport.