Fuselage found in Lao plane wreck, black boxes missing
Vientiane - The fuselage of the Lao Airlines plane that crashed into the Mekong River last week killing 49 people has been salvaged, but the flight recorders remain missing, media reports said Wednesday.
The recorders were not among the wreckage winchedfrom the wateron Tuesday, and are believed to be somewhere in the mud of the riverbed, the Vientiane Times reported.
"The tail was missing when we lifted the wreckage up," said Yakua Lopangkao, director of the department of civil aviation. "The blackboxes might still be attached at the tail or might have broken off somewhere nearby if the tail of the plane was broken."
"If the black box recorders were still attached to the tail thenthey will be easier to find, but if they broke off then the task willbe more difficult," Yakua told the state-run daily.
Lao Airlines Flight QV 301 from the capital Vientiane to thesouthern city of Pakse crashed on October 16 after hittingturbulence.
Some 47 bodies were retrieved from the river as of Tuesday. Searchteams were slowed by strong currents and turbid waters in the Mekong.
The twin-engine turboprop ATR 72-600 had been delivered from theFrench-Italian aircraft maker ATR in March.
There were 44 passengers aboard comprising 16 Lao, seven Frenchnationals, six Australians, five Thais, three South Koreans, threeVietnamese, one American, one Chinese, one Canadian, one Malaysiannational, and one person from Taiwan.
