A search and rescue operation continued into Thursday night after a small plane crashed into a mangrove forest in Bang Pakong district of Chachoengsao earlier in the afternoon.
According to the flight tracking site FL360aero, the Thai Flying Service Cessna Caravan C208 (HS-SKR) with nine people onboard left Suvarnabhumi airport at 2.46pm, bound for Ko Mai Chee airport in Trat province. It reportedly lost contact with the Suvarnabhumi control tower at around 3pm.
The crash occurred at 3.18pm behind Wat Khao Din in Bang Pakong district.
The wreckage of the small plane was found in the mud in a mangrove forest near the temple. Women’s clothes and a photo of three foreign women were found at the site.
The nine people onboard were reported to be five Chinese and two Thai passengers, and a Thai pilot and co-pilot.
Police officers from Bang Pakong station said search teams were collecting the wreckage, but no trace of the plane’s occupants had been found as of Thursday evening.
The search has been complicated by water inundating the site at high tide near the mouth of the Bang Pakong River nearby, according to local media reports.
Rescue workers inspect the wreckage of the crashed plane in Bang Pakong district of Chachoengsao on Thursday afternoon. (Image from video by Chachoengsao Rescue Association)
