Thai forensic team arrives
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A Thai police forensic team arrived in Laos yesterday to identify the five Thai nationals believed to have died in the Lao Airlines crash. The team, armed with fingerprints of the five Thai passengers, will remain at the crash site until they are able to
Autopsies will be conducted on all bodies recovered from the site in accordance with international standards, he added.
Dr Charit Thongprayon, director of Suppasit Prasong Hospital in Ubon Ratchathani province, said the hospital was preparing facilities for the autopsies, pending a decision on where they would be carried out.
“We are talking with Lao authorities about whether autopsies will take place in Laos or in Ubon Ratchathani,” he said.
Laos’ Champasak province is opposite Ubon Ratchathani province, on the other side of the Mekong River, where the Lao Airlines plane crashed.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who will join her Laotian counterpart Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong for a joint merit-making ceremony today, has instructed local authorities in Ubon Ratchathani to do their best to assist Laotian officials at the crash site.
Relatives of victims are currently waiting at Champasak Grand Hotel in Pakse, the capital of Champasak province, for news about their loved ones.
Some of the dead have been taken to a temple in Pakse, although most are damaged beyond recognition. Autopsies on the recovered bodies have yet to begin.
