44 passengers, crew killed in Laos plane crash

All 44 passengers and crew were killed in a Lao Airlines plane on Wednesday.


The plane carrying about 44 passengers crashed in Champasak province in southern Laos due to bad weather, the English language Bangkok Post reported, citing an airline official. The report said there were no immediate details of casualties.

The plane carrying 44 people from the capital Vientiane to the southern town of Pakse when it crashed killing the passengers and crew a Thai foreign ministry spokesman said.

The Ministry of Public Works and Transport, which operates the airline as a state enterprise, said 44 passengers and five crew members were aboard flight QV301 from the Lao capital, Vientiane, to Pakse in the country's south. Earlier reports had said there were 39 passengers on board.

"Upon preparing to land at Pakse Airport the aircraft ran into extreme bad weather conditions and was reportedly crashed into the Mekong River," the ministry said in a statement. It said there was no word of survivors. The airline flies an ATR-72 twin-engine turboprop plane on the 467-kilometer (290-mile) route.

Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee said his country's embassy in Vientiane was informed that the plane crashed 7-8 kilometers (4-5 miles) from the airport at Pakse.

A passenger manifest faxed by the airline listed 44 people: 17 Lao, seven French, five Australians, five Thais, three Koreans, two Vietnamese and one person each from Canada, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and the United States. Korean, French and Thai officials confirmed the totals for their nationalities.

The Lao government said the airline "is taking all necessary steps to coordinate and dispatch all rescue units to the accident site in the hope of finding survivors."

It said the crash is being investigated and the airline hoped to announce its findings on Thursday. A Laos Airlines employee contacted by phone at Vientiane's Wattay airport said a news conference would be held Thursday.