(Updates with PM comments, airport reopened)

By Jaqueline Wong

PHUKET, Thailand, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Thai rescue workers dragged the last bodies on Monday from the charred wreckage of a budget airliner that crashed while trying to land in a fierce monsoon storm on the resort island of Phuket, killing 89 people.

Having recovered the flight data recorders, investigators were sifting through the gutted fuselage for clues as to why the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 veered off the runway before smashing into a wooded embankment and bursting into flames.

Survivors spoke of torrential rain and trees bent over in the wind as the plane approached the "Pearl of the Andaman" isle, famed for its white-sand beaches, azure waters and nightlife.

Deputy Transport Minister Sansern Wongcha-um said the final death toll was 34 Thais and 55 foreigners, many of them European holidaymakers.

The Indonesian flight captain and his Thai co-pilot were both killed, but 41 people survived a crash likely to raise more safety questions about the budget carriers that have sprung up across Asia in the last decade.

The coastal airstrip, known to be tricky for landing even without Sunday's driving rain and wind, reopened to commercial flights late on Monday, shortly after a government plane carrying Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont was allowed to land.

Surayud brought flowers and fruit for the injured, who were being treated in hospitals that less than three years ago were helping thousands of holidaymakers hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami.

"It's a very tragic accident," Surayud said. "I wish that all the patients recover very soon."

Five survivors were in critical condition, with burns to 60 percent of their bodies. Fourteen Thais, seven Britons, five Iranians and four Germans were among those injured.

Australia offered to help identify the victims, who so far were known to include four Swedes, three Americans, two Iranians, a French national, at least one Australian and one Briton.

"This process could take some time," said Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. Australian forensics experts played a lead role in identifying the victims of the December 2004 tsunami, which killed 5,395 people in Thailand, more than 200 of them on Phuket.

"EXPERIENCED PILOT"

Emergency workers were quick to retrieve the "black box" flight data recorders which would be sent to the United States for analysis, likely to arrive in two weeks, officials said.

Sansern said a recording of the last radio contacts between the doomed airliner and the control tower had been transcribed, but refused to give details.

The Bangkok Post newspaper quoted a senior aviation official as saying the pilot had radioed the tower to say he was aborting the landing because he could not see the runway in the rain.

Much of the crash investigation was likely to focus on the weather as the plane, flown by Bangkok-based low-cost operator One-Two-Go, came in to land.

"The pilot tried to bring the plane back up. He started to turn right and made a sharp turn right and then the plane went into the embankment," Millie Furlong, a 23-year-old waitress from Canada, told Reuters in hospital.

"I saw the grass and knew we were going to crash. It was very quick."

Udom Tantiprasongchai, chairman of One-Two-Go parent company Orient Thai Airlines, said the pilot was experienced.

"Police will set up an investigating committee to find out what actually caused the accident. What we need to do right now is take care of the injured," he told reporters on Sunday evening. "I'm deeply sorry about this tragic event."

Despite a number of crashes and scares, most recently in Indonesia, analysts say there is no hard evidence to suggest that so-called "no frills" carriers are more accident-prone than their full-service competitors.

"Safety has little to do with the fact that an airline is cheap or expensive," said Suharto Majid of the Indonesian Transportation Society, a non-government agency lobbying for better air safety.

"Low-cost carriers and conventional airlines must follow the same safety standards," he said.

Airports of Thailand said there had been 78 foreigners on board, most of them European holidaymakers. More than 12 million tourists a year visit Thailand. (Additional reporting by Bangkok newsroom and Ahmad Pathoni in Jakarta)

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