Oct 20, 2000 - 09:55 AM

Eight Killed as Small Plane Crashes in Laos With 15 on Board The Associated Press

VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) - A Laotian airliner crashed into a mountain, killing eight of the 15 people on board, including foreigners, officials said Friday. One of the seven survivors walked away from the crash and alerted authorities, they said.

The small Chinese-made Y-12 plane went down Thursday during a scheduled flight for the state Lao Aviation airlines from the capital Vientiane to the northern town of Sam Neua.

Seven foreigners were on board, four of them Indians who survived with minor injuries, an Indian Embassy spokesman said.

The three foreigners who were killed were from Singapore, Germany and South Africa, other officials said.

The Indians work on a road construction project in Sam Neua, said a spokesman of the Dai-Ichi Lao Co., which had subcontracted the project to a Singaporean company. The Singaporean who was killed was the manager of the project, a spokesman said.

The German and the South African did not work on the project, and their background was not known.

It was not known how many crew members were on board the twin-engine turboprop plane, which usually has two pilots.

One survivor walked from the crash site near Sam Neua to inform authorities Thursday night, said an official of the Lao West Coast Helicopter, a private company that worked Friday to recover the survivors and bodies.

Lao Aviation has a shaky safety record and several Western embassies have issued advisories warning their citizens against using the airline.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA4MBJXJEC.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), October 20, 2000