Reuters
All 22 passengers and crew aboard a tourist plane that crashed into jungle-clad mountains in Cambodia are dead.
"According to the reports I have received from the ground, all 22 on the plane are dead. Nobody survived," cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said on Wednesday.
"We are going to carry the bodies out of the area."
The plane, which crashed on Monday, was carrying 13 South Korean and three Czech passengers, as well as a Russian pilot, two Cambodian co-pilots, a Cambodian engineer and two flight attendants.
The plane vanished from radar screens on Monday during a flight from Siem Reap, home to the famed 800-year-old Angkor Wat temple complex, to the coastal resort of Sihanoukville.
Also on board the plane operated by Phnom Penh-based carrier PMT Air were a Russian captain, two Cambodian co-pilots, a Cambodian engineer and two flight attendants.
The search, which Prime Minister Hun Sen supervised himself, was hampered by heavy rain which turned heavily forested mountains slippery and difficult to move through and limited visibility from helicopters.
Hun Sen offered a $5,000 reward to anyone finding the wreckage.
Air services between Siem Reap and Sihanoukville reopened in January 2007 after a prolonged hiatus during Cambodia's civil war.
The resumption of the internal route was touted as another sign of the former French colony's accelerating recovery from the destruction wrought by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge during their four years in power from 1975 to 1979.
Cambodia attracted more than 1.7 million tourists last year, most of them drawn to Angkor Wat.
"According to the reports I have received from the ground, all 22 on the plane are dead. Nobody survived," cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said on Wednesday.
"We are going to carry the bodies out of the area."
The plane, which crashed on Monday, was carrying 13 South Korean and three Czech passengers, as well as a Russian pilot, two Cambodian co-pilots, a Cambodian engineer and two flight attendants.
The plane vanished from radar screens on Monday during a flight from Siem Reap, home to the famed 800-year-old Angkor Wat temple complex, to the coastal resort of Sihanoukville.
Also on board the plane operated by Phnom Penh-based carrier PMT Air were a Russian captain, two Cambodian co-pilots, a Cambodian engineer and two flight attendants.
The search, which Prime Minister Hun Sen supervised himself, was hampered by heavy rain which turned heavily forested mountains slippery and difficult to move through and limited visibility from helicopters.
Hun Sen offered a $5,000 reward to anyone finding the wreckage.
Air services between Siem Reap and Sihanoukville reopened in January 2007 after a prolonged hiatus during Cambodia's civil war.
The resumption of the internal route was touted as another sign of the former French colony's accelerating recovery from the destruction wrought by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge during their four years in power from 1975 to 1979.
Cambodia attracted more than 1.7 million tourists last year, most of them drawn to Angkor Wat.
3 comments:
Hun sen should have been on that plane so all khmer could clebrate their liberation.
Up to now - there is no comment on the Website of PMT to the accident. No regrets, no condolence, not a single word to the relatives - nothing. It is a shame.
http://www.pmtair.com/www/index.php
In the aftermath of major violation of air safety, the PMT has egregiously perpetrated hedious crime against its passengers, and therefore, I'm undoubtedly certain that the relatives of the deceased will sumon their attorneys for ligitation against the PMT airlines to make certain that all the ill-fated passengers be endentified, and and to ensure that this airline will be put in the holding pattern until the investigation is complete.
Further, the Cambodian government should make certain that this airline is not become airborne until the airline meets all the domestic air safety requirements.
Where the hell was the ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter), which will transmit the signal in the event of the crash. Also, I highly doubted that this particular aircraft has black boxes (on the tail), one records the voice of the pilots, and the other records aircraft instruments.
On behalf of all Cambodians and other nationals, please do not gamble your life with the AN-24 airplane. This particular aircraft does not have the capability to handle the mereological conditions that it was encountered during the storm.
Also, what happen to the Cambodian NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board), after the authorities learned of the crash, or the Cambodian government simply does not have NTSB?
Please do not gamble your life with the air safety.
Khmer-American airline pilot
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