A Lao Airlines' flight heading from Vientiane to Pakse, Laos crashed upon landing on Wednesday killing all 49 people on board, the Associated Press reported.
The Ministry of Public Works and Transport, which operates airlines as a state enterprise, confirmed there were a total of 44 passengers and five crew members on board, according to the AP.
The passengers were from a total of 11 different countries including 17 people from Lao, seven French, five Australians, five Thais, three Koreans, two Vietnamese and one person each from Canada, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and the United States, the AP reported.
According to the Lao government, the airline is taking all necessary steps to send rescue units to the accident site in hope of finding survivors, but all on board are presumed dead, the AP reported. The Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee said in a statement that the country's embassy in Vientiane was informed that the plane crashed 4-5 miles from the airport at Pakse, the AP reported.
CNN reported that as the plan was preparing to land at the Pakse Airport, the aircraft ran into bad weather conditions believed to be caused by remnants of the Typhoon Nari that has been hitting the area.
The wind seems to have pushed the plane off its landing course and caused it to crash into the Mekong River, the Thai ministry said in a released statement. The statement also said the crash is being investigated and findings will be announced on Thursday, according to the AP.
The head of a voluntary Thai rescue organization told a Thai television channel that he would send a team of divers to recover bodies on Thursday, the New York Times reported.
"I don't think Laos has the facilities to conduct this type of operation," he said.
But according to the Times, an online report in The Bangkok Post late Wednesday cited a foreign resident of Pakse who said the bodies of crash victims were being laid out in a Chinese temple. The unnamed resident described the the scene as "an absolute horror."
Laos is an impoverished country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west and it is governed by a communist party, The Times reported.
Lao Airlines released the statement about the crash through their Facebook Page.
