Bodies of Thai victims from Laos' plane crash sent home

BANGKOK, October 22 (TNA) - Relatives of Thai victims in a Lao Airlines plane crash last Wednesday have asked the Thai government to deploy an airplane to receive the bodies from Pakse Airport in Laos' Champasak province to be transported to Bangkok on Tuesday afternoon for religious ceremonies. Suthinant Boonmee, Acting Governor of Thailand's northeastern Ubon Ratchathani province told journalists of the development on Tuesday morning, saying that officials of the Thai Consulate-General in Laos' Savannakhet Province were preparing documents about the deaths. Suthinant acknowledged that the Thai military has ended its searches for bodies at the air crash site in the Mekong River in Pakse city since Monday afternoon, as three bodies of Thai victims have been discovered, but the Royal Thai Police has continued to assist Lao authorities in identifying the recovered bodies of the domestic plane crash victims until the task is completed. According to the acting governor, search officials have already located the ATR plane wreck, but it could not be salvaged because of the murky water and strong currents of the Mekong River. The acting governor noted that officials of the ATR aircraft manufacturer and Lao authorities were planning the salvage to retrieve the flight data recorder, or black box, and they expected some bodies remained inside the fuselage. (TNA)