A Lao Airlines plane flying in stormy weather crashed into the Mekong river in southern Laos on Wednesday, killing all 44 people on board, among them nationals of 10 countries.
The ATR-72 turboprop plane flying from the capital Vientiane crashed at about 4.10 p.m. (0910 GMT) just eight kilometres (five miles) short of its destination Pakse, which is near the borders of both Thailand and Cambodia.
The airline said in a statement it had yet to determine the cause of the crash, in which a senior aviation official said the tail end of Typhoon Nari may have been a factor.
Those killed were mostly Lao nationals. But seven French nationals were also killed, the country’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.
South Koreans, Australians, Canadians, Taiwanese, Chinese, Burmese and Vietnamese and five Thais were also among the dead, said Thailand’s foreign ministry spokesman, Sek Wannamethee.