5 tourists killed in Thailand plane crash, ‘not Hong Kong residents’, city authorities say

The five passengers who died in a plane crash in Thailand were not Hong Kong residents, city authorities confirmed on Friday.

The immigration authorities revealed the identities of the five tourists after foreign media quoted a Thai government spokesman as saying they were “Chinese tourists from Hong Kong.”

“The Immigration Department has not yet received any requests for assistance from Hong Kong residents and confirms that the persons involved in the incident are not Hong Kong residents,” it said.

The ministry added that it had maintained close contact with the Office of the Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong and the Chinese Embassy in Thailand.

It remains unclear why Thai authorities said the five were from Hong Kong.

All nine people on board died when the small turboprop aircraft on a domestic flight lost radio and radar contact with air traffic control 11 minutes after takeoff in Bangkok and crashed in Chachoengsao province.

Foreign media previously quoted the Thai spokesman as saying that the five passengers were Chinese tourists from Hong Kong.

Thai media reported that the five people were Chinese passport holders, including two children born in Shanghai, aged 12 and 13.

The other three adults, aged between 42 and 45, were born in Zhejiang Province and Shanghai.

The rest were all Thai citizens, including two female crew members, the pilot and the co-pilot.

The cause of the crash is still unclear.

The crash occurred shortly after the Cessna Caravan C208B with flight number TFT 209 of the Thai Flying Service Company took off from Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi Airport at 14:46.

Contact was lost when the aircraft was estimated to be 35 kilometers (22 miles) southeast of the airport.

The destination was Trat, a coastal province about 275 kilometers southeast of the Thai capital.

Rescue workers found badly shattered body parts in a mangrove swamp in Chachoengsao. A video from the scene of the accident also showed badly shattered aircraft parts in the water in the middle of the forest area.