BANGKOK– A small passenger plane on a domestic flight in Thailand crashed shortly after takeoff from the capital Bangkok’s main airport on Thursday afternoon, the country’s civil aviation authority said. All nine people on board apparently died.
Rescue workers found no survivors at the crash site in a mangrove swamp in Chachoengsao province, about 40 kilometers from the airport, Thai media reported. There were seven passengers and two pilots on board the plane.
After about an hour of searching, rescue workers found badly shattered body parts in the impassable, swampy terrain, a spokesman for the provincial government said.
The names of those on board were not immediately available, but the spokesman said they included five Chinese tourists from Hong Kong, two Thai crew members, and the Thai pilot and co-pilot.
The cause of the crash is not yet known.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand said the turboprop plane, a Cessna Caravan C208B of Thai Flying Service Company, took off from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport at 2:46 p.m. (07:46 GMT). Air traffic control lost radio and radar contact with the plane 11 minutes later, when it was estimated to be 35 kilometers southeast of the airport.
The plane’s destination was Trat, a coastal province about 275 kilometers southeast of the Thai capital.
A video from the scene of the accident showed heavily splintered aircraft parts lying in the water in the middle of a forest. A rescuer could be seen chest deep in muddy water.
The Chachoengsao provincial spokesman said further search operations were progressing slowly as it was already dark and the tide had further inundated the crash site.
