Bangkok: A small Thai plane carrying nine passengers, including five Chinese tourists, crashed near the capital of Bangkok on Thursday, and no survivors have been found from the wreckage of the aircraft. Officials said all passengers are presumed dead as authorities continued rescue operations and are investigating the case.
Rescuers used hoes on Friday to search muddy, forested terrain for debris and the remains of nine people to no avail. Five tourists from China and four Thais, including the two pilots, were on the Cessna Caravan C208B aircraft that went down 100 km from Bangkok after losing contact with ground control following take-off.
"We found many human remains," the governor told reporters late on Thursday, adding that the muddy terrain complicated the task of searchers. "The plane dropped vertically, so we have to dig 10 m (33 ft) into the ground."
The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand said the turboprop plane, a Cessna Caravan C208B operated by the Thai Flying Service Company, had departed Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport at 2:46 pm (local time). Air traffic control lost radio and radar contact with the aircraft 11 minutes later, when it was an estimated 35 km southeast of the airport.
The plane, operating flight TFT209 headed for the eastern province of Trat, had taken off from the Suvarnabhumi airport in the capital on Thursday afternoon. Registered to Thai Flying Service Co Ltd, according to the aviation regulator, the craft lost contact with ground control in Bangkok 11 minutes after take-off, provincial officials said.
Women's clothes and a photograph of three foreign women were also found at the site. CNN reported that residents of Chachoengsao's Bang Pakong district describing seeing the plane fall from the sky and "explode loudly" upon impact, with debris damaging nearby homes.
The river's high tide made the search even more challenging, with rescue teams having to pump out water and build embankments to prevent more water from flowing in, the provincial office said. The search was paused at 2 am, and resumed on Friday morning.
(with inputs from agencies)
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