Five Thais are among passengers in Laos' plane crash

UBON RATCHATHANI, THAILAND, Oct 17 (TNA) - Thai and Lao officials have been searching an airplane crash site in the Mekong River for victims, five of whom have been confirmed Thai nationals. Sutthinant Boonmee, Deputy Governor of Thailand’s northeastern Ubon Ratchathani Province, had a meeting with provincial rescue workers and divers and those from adjacent Surin and Si Sa Ket Provinces, as well as authorities from Laos' Champasak Province at the Chong Mek border crossing in Ubon Ratchathani's Sirindhorn District on Thursday morning. They then agreed to continue searching for the bodies of victims in the Lao Airlines plane crash in the middle of the Mekong River, after an initial search stopped on late Wednesday night when the rescue workers found five bodies but none was Thai. The air crash happened on Wednesday evening, as the Lao domestic flight, which had taken off from Vientiane Airport and was heading for Pakse, the capital city of Champasak Province, plunged into the Mekong River in the boundary of Pakse, 45 kilometers from the Chong Mek border crossing, amid bad weather conditions. Meanwhile, Sek Wannamethee, Director-General of the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of Information, told reporters of the update that 30 divers from Ubon Ratchathani have participated in the searches and five out of 44 bodies on board the Lao ill-fated flight have been discovered so far, but the identification of the bodies will take some times. (TNA)