Plane with Chinese nationals crashes in Thailand, 9 aboard feared dead

Rescue personnel despite a 11 hour search have found no survivors at the site of a crash of a small passenger plane in Thailand that took off from Bangkok airport, local media reported on Friday.

According to the Bangkok Post, the Thai Flying Service operated plane, a Cessna Caravan C208 (HS-SKR) with nine people, including five Chinese nationals onboard left Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok at 2.46 pm on August 22 reportedly lost contact with the Suvarnabhumi control tower at around 3pm.

The plane on a domestic flight was bound for Ko Mai Chee airport in Trat in the country.

The crash occurred at 3.18 pm behind Wat Khao Din in Bang Pakong district and according to the Thai news daily and the wreckage of the plane was found in the mud in a mangrove forest near the temple.

Women's clothes and a photograph of three foreign women were also found at the site, it said.

The victims included five Chinese nationals, two Thai flight attendants along with the pilot the co-pilot was Pornsak Totab, 30.

Meanwhile, CNN reported that residents of Chachoengsao's Bang Pakong district describing seeing the plane fall from the sky and "explode loudly" upon impact, with debris damaging nearby homes.

Large excavators dug through the mud and mangrove trees, with some workers standing in knee-deep ponds to fish out debris.

The river's high tide made the search even more challenging, with rescue teams having to pump out water and build embankments to prevent more water from flowing in, the provincial office said. The search was paused at 2 am, and resumed on Friday morning.