Three Survive, 63 Die In Phnom Penh Crash Looters Rush To Rice Paddy Near Runway

A Thai toddler and two other people survived when a Vietnam Airlines plane carrying 66 people crashed Wednesday on approach to Phnom Penh’s airport, skidding through a dry rice paddy before exploding.

Bodies scattered, and hundreds of people rushed to the area a half-mile south of the runway - to pick the pockets of the dead, steal luggage or make off with pieces of wreckage. Some police officers joined in until others chased off the looters. No arrests were reported.

Relatives expecting loved ones on the flight from Ho Chi Minh City rushed to the site. A Cambodian man surveying the carnage wept, saying: “My brother! My brother’s supposed to be here.”

The Soviet-built Tupolev 134 crashed during a rainstorm; the cause was under investigation.

Cambodian leader Hun Sen said the dead included 22 Taiwanese, 21 South Koreans, eight Chinese, four Cambodians, two Vietnamese, one Japanese, one Australian and one “European.” Nationalities of the rest were unknown.

The Thai boy, 1-year-old Chanayuth Nim-Anong, survived the crash with a broken leg and was hospitalized in stable condition. His mother, a Chinese national, died in the crash.

The boy’s father, Niphon NimAnong, 40, a businessman from the Thai coastal resort of Pattaya, was awaiting the flight when the plane crashed and exploded. He rushed to the site.

“There were so many people, and I saw someone carrying my boy,” Niphon said. “I saw it was my son and brought him to the hospital.”

The boy initially had been the only known survivor, at the capital’s main hospital, Calmette. But Cambodian leader Hun Sen announced that there were two other survivors at another hospital.

Hun Sen visited the Calmette hospital while 49 bodies covered with white sheets were unloaded from trucks. Workers were to try to recover the rest of the bodies today, which was declared a national day of mourning.

“It’s big tragedy, an accident,” Hun Sen said.

The Tupolev 134 was approaching the Pochentong International Airport runway from the east at about 2,000 feet when the control tower ordered the pilot to attempt an approach from the west.

Tith Chantha, chief of the control tower, said the crew lost communication with the tower, and three minutes later the plane was diving into palm trees. It leveled trees and bamboo stands, killed a tethered cow and slid 200 yards in a dry rice paddy before exploding and skidding to a fiery stop.

Rescue workers pulled bodies from the flames, which burned for more than an hour. Rain had flooded the narrow dirt road into the site, delaying fire trucks.

At least three people - two men and a 4-year-old boy - survived the initial crash, but died later from their injuries.

Associated Press photographer David Longstreath, waiting at the airport to catch another flight, said he heard the normal sound of a plane on approach and then the high rev of engines trying to regain altitude.

“There was a red ball of fire followed by a huge plume of black smoke,” Longstreath said.

Bodies from the crash were strewn around the fire-blackened wreckage. Vietnam Airlines officials in Ho Chi Minh City said the plane was carrying six crew and 60 passengers. Airline officials did not have a detailed passenger list.

Vietnam Airlines was one of the first carriers to resume service to Phnom Penh after the airport was damaged and looted during a July coup by troops loyal to Cambodian leader Hun Sen. The tower was stripped of equipment, which was hastily replaced.