A plane carrying top senior Laotian government officials crashed Saturday morning, leaving at least four people dead, reports Thomas Fuller. Killed were the deputy prime minister, defence minister and member of Politburo, Douangchay Phichit, and Thongbane Sengaphone, the minister of public security, the two most powerful people in the security apparatus. The governor of Vientiane province, Soukanh Mahalath, and Cheuang Sombounkhanh, secretariat of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party's Central Committee and chairman of the Propaganda Training Committee, were was also killed in the crash according to bangkokpost.com. The plane was a Russian-made Antonov AN-74TK300, the crash happened near Nadee village in Paek district of Xiengkouang province according to KPL, the Lao News Agency, that published pictures. This was west of the Xiangkhouang airport and not far from the Plain of Jars. More pictures are shown on site Lao Pictures on Facebook.
