Aaron Toland, aged 22, and his best friend Chris Cooley, also 22, were on the trip of a lifetime when disaster struck on budget airline flight 269 to Phuket.

Aaron and 88 other passengers lost their lives when the plane hit the runway at Phuket Airport during monsoon weather. Chris survived along with 40 others.

Now both families have recruited solicitors to bring a multimillion dollar lawsuit against the airline, to be tried in the United States.

Anne-Marie Toland, Aaron’s mother, says the family wants those people flying unsafe planes punished.

Speaking yesterday, Mrs Toland said: “[It’s] for other people that are going to be flying out there, that are going to go on low cast airlines thinking they are flying safe planes but they are not.

“This is the only way we can get Udom (Udom Tantiprasongchai, founder of One-Two-Go), is through going to court. And it’s not for money. It’s nothing to do with the money at all, we just want justice for Aaron.”

Gareth McFadden, from Derry-based McDermott McGurk solicitors, which is representing both families, said they were seeking answers.

Mr McFadden said: “We are instructing a number of people in the States who are going to take proceedings against One-Two-Go. Our clients were concerned it was going to be a whitewash and that it was going to be covered up in a sense. But they have been assured that it won’t.”

Reports on the crash and the airline, One-Two-Go, have spoken of pilots losing control of planes due to long hours and fatigue. One newspaper report claimed that the captain of flight 269, Arief Mulyadi, from Indonesia, had a history of freezing at the controls.

No panic on flight

Mr McFadden said Chris Cooley could remember no panic on the flight as it approached the runway.

He said: “As regards Chris and his story, all he can say is that there was no panic aboard the place, no general panic and he was aware of the plane descending.

“There was an aborted attempt at landing and it sounds like it has gone wrong. There seems to be a problem with wind shear, a strong gust of wind, which would be quite common in the tropics and somewhere like Thailand. There is a possibility that the instruments were faulty and that the pilots were flying for too long and the conditions of the weather generally.”

Mr McFadden said a report into the crash compiled by the Thai Civil Aviation Authority could take up to 18 months.

He said: “At this stage no one can say what caused it and the report is not going to say this or that particular person was to blame.

“I can’t envisage anything happening until the report is made but it won’t be available for another 12-18 months.

“What it will set out is the sequence of events, what didn’t happen or what should’ve happened, but it will not apportion blame.

“At that point there will be enough evidence to move the case to trial.