Plane Crash in Cambodia Kills 63; 3 Hospitalized

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia —  A Thai boy and two other people survived when a Vietnam Airlines plane carrying 66 people crashed Wednesday on approach to this capital’s airport, skidding through a dry rice paddy before exploding.

Bodies scattered, and hundreds of looters rushed to the area half a mile south of the runway. The looters were chased off, and 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. The 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.

Hun Sen said the two other survivors also were hospitalized.

The plane was approaching the airport runway from the east at 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. It leveled trees and bamboo stands and slid 200 yards in the rice paddy before exploding and skidding to a fiery stop.