5 Hong Kong tourists believed dead in Thailand plane crash

A small passenger plane on a domestic flight in Thailand crashed on Thursday afternoon soon after taking off from the main airport in the capital, Bangkok, the country’s civil aviation authority announced.

It appeared that all nine people aboard had been killed.

Rescuers found no survivors at the crash site in a mangrove swamp in Chachoengsao province about 40km (25 miles) from the airport, reported Thai media, which said seven passengers and two pilots had been listed as being on board.

After about an hour of searching, rescuers found badly shattered body parts in the difficult, swampy terrain, said a spokesperson for the provincial government.

The names of those on board were not immediately available. However, the spokesperson said they included five Chinese tourists from Hong Kong, two Thai female crew and the Thai pilot and co-pilot.

A spokesman for Hong Kong’s Immigration Department said in the early hours of Friday that it had immediately tried to understand the situation through Beijing’s foreign affairs office in the city as well as the Chinese embassy in Thailand.

The department had not received any requests for assistance from any Hong Kong residents related to the plane crash so far, the spokesman added.

The cause of the crash is not yet known.

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 2.46pm.

Air traffic control lost radio and radar contact with the aircraft 11 minutes later, when it was an estimated 35km (22 miles) southeast of the airport.

It had been headed to Trat, a coastal province about 275km (171 miles) southeast of the Thai capital.

Video from the scene showed highly