Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday he was traveling personally to where a PMT Air passenger flight had disappeared and was believed to have crashed as weather conditions worsened and hopes of finding survivors dwindled.
Hundreds of military were scouring the jungle about 40 kilometers north of Kampot town Tuesday, so far unsuccessfully, for traces of the wreckage in a search personally led by Cambodian army commander-in-chief Ke Kim Yan and National Disaster Management Committee deputy president Nhim Vanda.
Kampot lies about 150 kilometers south-west of the capital.
"We have found nothing yet. The weather conditions here are terrible," a member of the rescue team said on condition of anonymity.
Civil Aviation Authority official Hor Sarun confirmed 13 South Koreans, three Czechs and five Cambodians including two passengers were on the flight list. A Russian was piloting the Russian-made AN-24 when it went down late Monday morning, he said.
Hun Sen said he would travel by road to the scene as conditions were too poor for him to fly his private helicopter in the mountainous area of Chhuk district notorious for thick and sudden fogs.
He appealed for all local Cambodians living near the search area to volunteer to help the rescue effort.
The PMT Air flight lost contact enroute between Siem Reap, the gateway to the Angkor Wat temples, and Sihanoukville, the country's premier beach resort.
Authorities have not released the names of the missing passengers and crew.
- Bronwyn Sloan
Updates and discussion on the EAS Forums:
http://www.expat-advisory.com/forums/plane-crashes-in-cambodia-vt2651.html