All 9 passengers and crew feared dead after Thailand plane crashes into mangrove forest outside Bangkok

Plane lost contact with air traffic control 11 minutes after departure

All nine people on board a small passenger plane are believed to be dead after the aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Bangkok’s main airport in Thailand on Thursday afternoon.

There were five tourists from Hong Kong on board, as well as two cabin crew members and a pilot and co-pilot, all four from Thailand.

The crash occured 11 minutes after departure, the country’s civil aviation authority confirmed.

The plane, a Cessna Caravan C208B, reportedly lost contact with air traffic control and crashed in a mangrove swamp in Chachoengsao province.

The plane was on its way to Trat, a coastal province located about 275km (171 miles) southeast of Bangkok.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand reported that the turboprop plane, operated by the Thai Flying Service Company, took off from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport at 2.46pm local time. However, 11 minutes later, air traffic control lost radio and radar contact with the aircraft, which was about 35km southeast of the airport at that point.

A handout photo made available by the Poh Teck Tung Foundation shows rescue workers conducting a search and rescue operation to recover the wreckage of a plane after it crashed into a mangrove forest in Chachoengsao province, Thailand. All nine passengers, including five Chinese tourists from Hong Kong, two Thai female crew and the Thai pilot and co-pilot were killed in the crash, according to the governor of Chachoengsao province (EPA)

According to the Bangkok Post, search and rescue efforts continued into Thursday night.

It stated that the wreckage of the small plane was discovered in the muddy terrain of a mangrove forest and search and rescue teams found women’s clothing and a photo of three foreign women at the crash site.

A small plane with nine people on board was found in the mud after it crashed in a mangrove forest in Chachoengsao province in Thailand (EPA)

Local police said search teams were collecting the wreckage, but as of Thursday evening, no sign of the plane’s occupants had been found. However, the Associated Press, citing a provincial government spokesperson, stated that after approximately an hour of searching rescuers discovered fragmented body parts in the swampy terrain.

The search efforts have also been hampered by high tide flooding the area near the mouth of the Bang Pakong River.

The cause of the crash is still unknown.