All nine people on board a small passenger plane are believed to be dead after the aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Bangkok’s main airport in Thailand on afternoon.
There were five tourists from Hong Kong on board, as well as two cabin crew members and a pilot and co-pilot, all four from Thailand.
The crash occured 11 minutes after departure, the country’s civil aviation authority confirmed.
The plane, a Cessna Caravan C208B, reportedly lost contact with air traffic control and crashed in a mangrove swamp in Chachoengsao province.
The plane was on its way to Trat, a coastal province located about 275km (171 miles) southeast of Bangkok.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand reported that the turboprop plane, operated by the Thai Flying Service Company, took off from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport at 2.46pm local time. However, 11 minutes later, air traffic control lost radio and radar contact with the aircraft, which was about 35km southeast of the airport at that point.
According to the Bangkok Post, search and rescue efforts continued into night.
It stated that the wreckage of the small plane was discovered in the muddy terrain of a mangrove forest and search and rescue teams found women’s clothing and a photo of three foreign women at the crash site
Local police said search teams were collecting the wreckage, but as of Thursday evening, no sign of the plane’s occupants had been found. However, the Associated Press, citing a provincial government spokesperson, stated that after approximately an hour of searching rescuers discovered fragmented body parts in the swampy terrain.
The search efforts have also been hampered by high tide flooding the area near the mouth of the Bang Pakong River.
The cause of the crash is still unknown.
Authorities have launched a search operation in the dense jungle of Chachoengsao province, southeast of Bangkok, after a turboprop plane crashed on Thursday.
The aircraft, carrying nine people including two pilots and seven passengers, went down while travelling from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport to Trat province, a popular beach destination on the Gulf of Thailand, according to AFP.
It happened at around 3.10 pm (0810 GMT). We are trying to find those missing, but we believe that they are all dead,” Chachoengsao governor Chonlatee Yangtrong told reporters at the scene. The passengers included four Thais and five Chinese, with two children aged 12 and 13 among them, according to local media reports.
The search effort involves more than 300 military personnel and volunteers, who have discovered some body parts and pieces of the aircraft. However, heavy rainfall is making the search more challenging. “We are not planning to stop until we find them, although there are some waterlogged areas,” Chonlatee said.
