Carcass of crashed cargo plane not yet removed from rice fields

Saturday, October 20, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

As of Friday, the carcass of the crashed cargo plane has not been removed from the water covered rice fields yet. The Koh Santepheap newspaper reported that the plane carcass still lies in thigh deep water at the crash site. The plane carcass is being guarded by Hun Sen’s personal bodyguards and the local police. There is no clear indication as to when the plane carcass will be removed from the incident location, however, aviation experts came to remove important parts of the plane to preserve them, but the plane carcass will be left to the plane operator to decide about its removal. Because of the long size of the plane, it cannot be pulled out in one piece, and it must be cut into several pieces for removal. Several villagers were attempting to get their hands on the plane carcass to cut it into pieces to sell as scrap metal. However, their attempts were not successful because Hun Sen’s bodyguards were preventing them. About 90% of the plane carcass remains, the rest fell apart during the crash landing.