A CHARTER flight home to Canada is an option being examined today for one survivor of a New Year crash in which two Canadians lost their lives.

The bodies of the two Canadian victims are likely to be taken home on the flight, if it eventuates. Tommy, 25, and Kevin, 18, the sons of Canadian couple Aryporn Sunthorn, 50, and Kongseng Sunthorn, 61, have arrived on Phuket in the wake of their parents' deaths.

An Australian man is still in a critical condition after the crash, with internal bleeding. It is believed that Sing Vannavong, 65, may have been driving the pickup, adapted to carry people with seating and a canopy, when it ran off the road and struck a pole head-on soon after midnight on New Year's Day.

In the front passenger seat was Mr Vannavong's uncle, Huy Songsak, 82, who now needs an operation on his neck to ensure he can walk again, hence the move to consider a charter flight to Canada.

Mr Songsak, his daughter Aryporn and her husband Kongseng had arrived at Phuket International Airport just before midnight on New Year's Eve and Mr Vannavong went to greet them.

However, Mr Vannavong had a problem: he did not know the way to the airport from where he was working on New Year's Eve, at the west coast beach destination of Surin.

So he asked another employee of the IndoChine group ''Boy'' aged 25, to accompany him and give direction to the airport.

Executive Director of the IndoChine Resort and Villas Phuket, Sue Ma, said today that Mr Vannavong had worked for the group for two decades and was considered to be a Ma family ''uncle.''

She said that Mr Vannavong, who did not drink, had been transferring extra furniture from the resort in Kalim, the beach north of Patong, to the IndoChine Surin Beach Club, which opened in late November, near the existing Stereolab nightspot.

''It was a busy night with about 400 or 500 guests,'' Ms Ma said. ''So Sing was fully occupied. We think he would normally have gone back to the resort to get the big van we usually use for airport arrivals.

''Instead it seems he said 'Ah what the heck, I'll just go from here.'' (Surin is on the way to the airport from Kalim.) ''He didn't know the way to the airport so he asked ''Boy'' to guide him.''

As well as the three Canadians, Mr Vannavong also picked up a Thai relative, a cousin from Bangkok.

The ''local bus'' is believed to have run off the road when Mr Vannavong swerved to avoid other vehicles. It is believed there were several witnesses.

Villagers around the Bang Tao temple, where the vehicle left the road, were out in the street watching fireworks, Ms Ma said.

The other vehicles did not stop.

The injured are being treated at Vachira Hospital, in Phuket City, Phuket's best-equipped public hospital.

Mr Vannavong had been living in Patong and working with Sue Ma and her brother Michael at the IndoChine resort and the Surin beach club. He had planned for his relatives to stay with him at his three-bedroom villa in Patong.