Laos Air crash | A Laos airline carrying 49 passengers and crews crashed into the Mekong river in Laos near its destination Pakse Airport killing all 49 people on board including 44 passengers, according to a latest news report by BBC online. The aircraft hit bad weather as it was trying to land at the Pakse airport of Laos. The Laos Airlines plane was flying from the capital Vientiane and crashed at the Mekong river minute before it could land at the destination airport on Wednesday.
According to the airline sources, the flight carried 44 passengers and 5 crews from a total of 10 nations, including 17 laos nationals and others from United States, France, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, Canada, China and Taiwan.
State-run Laos news agency quoted an eyewitness as saying that the plane “appeared to be hit by a strong wind, causing its head to ascend and pushing it away from the airport area”.
It was most probably the tail end of Typhoon Nari which may have been a factor in the Laos air crash, a senior aviation official from Laos quoted as saying.
According to the report, the bodies were taken to the local hospital after rescue operation. The plane was an ATR 72-600 twin turboprop engine aircraft. Its manufacturer, ATR, said in a statement that the plane was “delivered from the production line in March 2013”.
