Thais hunt KAL crash

Press, 1 December 1987, Page 1

Thais hunt KAL crash

DAVID STOREY

NZPA-Reuter Bangkok A South Korean airliner carrying 115 people which disappeared over the Andaman Sea in the Bay of Bengal on Sunday crashed into forested hills in western Thailand, said a Thai Air Force spokesman yesterday. He said the Korean Airlines Boeing 797 came down near an abandoned tin mine in Kanchanaburi province, close to the Burmese border, but there was no information about the fate of the passengers. Search and rescue work was being hampered by the remoteness of the terrain and thick mists which have hung in the area for the last few days. There was Initial confusion over whether wreckage had actually been found. The Air Force officer speaking in Bangkok said it had been found but local police in the Thai capital said they were still hunting for it A spokesman for the Interior Ministry’s Rescue Unit said an explosion had been heard in the area on Sunday afternoon and a plane had been seen falling. The airliner, with 85 passengers and 20 crew, had been en route to a fuelling stop in Dangkok on a flight from Bagdad to Seoul, carrying mainly South Korean contract workers returning home from the Middle East The passengers included two foreigners — one from India and one from thex United Arab Emirates. A rescue team Including doctors and ambulances was assembled at Kanchanaburi town, about 139 km . west of Bangkok. Police said -the reports from villagers appeared to pinpoint the crash site near Tao Dum (Black Turtle) mine between the villages of Bong Ti Yal and Bong Ti Lek about 20km from the border. They said a Border Patrol helicopter which hovered over the area earlier on Monday was unable to see the ground because of the mist. Two other helicopters later joined the hunt. The airliner’s pilot made no contact with ground control after reporting to the Rangoon tower that he was about 22 minutes flying time from the Burmese seaside town of Tawai en route for Bangkok. The president of KAL, Cho Choong-Hoon, who Hew to Bangkok with a team of 19 officials to help with investigations, told reporters if wreckage of the plane was found he would go to the site. Photograph, page 10.