Exasperated officials in Laos said on Friday they lack the equipment and manpower to locate the fuselage and more than 20 bodies still unaccounted for two days after a plane crashed and disappeared into the Mekong River.
International experts were scheduled to arrive later in the day from France, Singapore and Thailand to help with forensics and locating the flight data recorder, which could help explain why the virtually new Lao Airlines ATR-72 turboprop crashed.
Lao Airlines flight QV301 crashed on Wednesday as it prepared to land in stormy weather at Pakse Airport in southern Laos.
All 49 people on board, more than half of whom were foreigners, are presumed dead.
As of Friday afternoon 27 bodies were found, said Yakao Lopangkao, director-general of Lao’s Department of Civil Aviation.
He said rescuers still had not pinpointed the location of the plane’s fuselage in the vast, muddy waterway.
Lao Transport Minister Sommad Pholsena expressed open frustration as he awaited the arrival of more help at the crash site.
‘It’s very difficult to find (bodies) under water,’ the transport minister told reporters.
‘If we could find (the plane), we would have found it already.'
International experts were scheduled to arrive later in the day from France, Singapore and Thailand to help with forensics and locating the flight data recorder, which could help explain why the virtually new Lao Airlines ATR-72 turboprop crashed.
Lao Airlines flight QV301 crashed on Wednesday as it prepared to land in stormy weather at Pakse Airport in southern Laos.
All 49 people on board, more than half of whom were foreigners, are presumed dead.
As of Friday afternoon 27 bodies were found, said Yakao Lopangkao, director-general of Lao’s Department of Civil Aviation.
He said rescuers still had not pinpointed the location of the plane’s fuselage in the vast, muddy waterway.
Lao Transport Minister Sommad Pholsena expressed open frustration as he awaited the arrival of more help at the crash site.
‘It’s very difficult to find (bodies) under water,’ the transport minister told reporters.
‘If we could find (the plane), we would have found it already.'