Thailand mourns Lao senior officials killed in plane crash

BANGKOK, May 19 (TNA) -Thailand mourns the deaths of four Lao high-ranking officials who were killed in a plane crash last Saturday, with a Thai delegation, led by Caretaker Interior Minister Charupong Ruangsuwan, attending the cremation of the Lao senior officials in Vientiane, Laos' capital, on Monday afternoon. The Thai delegates, including former MPs of the ruling Pheu Thai Party, brought five wreaths of Thailand's former Pheu Thai prime ministers, including Thaksin Shinawatra, Somchai Wongsawat and Yingluck Shinawatra, as well as those of the ruling Pheu Thai Party and the caretaker Pheu Thai interior minister himself, to pay respect to the four bodies of the deceased Lao senior officials at a momorial service held in the Lao capital earlier in the day. Monday morning's event, presided over by Choummaly Sayasone, General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and also attended by Lao important figures and people, was set to be followed by the cremation of the four demised leading Lao officials and a national memorial service held in honour of the deceased Lao senior officials later in the day. A Lao Air Force Russia-produced 74TK300 plane crashed in a jungle at around 7am on May 17 (loal time) enroute to Lao northeastern Xieng Khouang Province, killing 16 people on board, including the four high-ranking officials, who are Laos' Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Douangchay Phichit and a member of the Politburo, as well as Minister of Public Security Thongbanh Sengaphone, Secretariat of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party's Central Committee cum Head of the Propaganda Training Committee Cheuang Sombounkhanh and Mayor of Vientiane Soukanh Mahalath. It was confirmed that 17 people were onboard the ill-fated Lao military aircraft, 11 passengers and six crew members. International media reports quoted sources at the Lao Defense Ministry as saying that the sole survivor was confirmed to be a nurse who was pulled from the wreckage, along with two others who later succumbed to injuries (TNA)