Rescuers detecting missing Blackhawk

BANGKOK, July 19 (TNA) - Rescuers have been detecting a military helicopter of the Royal Thai Army which was believed to have crashed on Tuesday morning when joining an official mission to retrieve all five bodies of a previous army helicopter crash in Kaeng Krajan National Park in Thailand's upper southern Petchaburi Province last Saturday.

The operation, ordered by Commanding General of Thailand's 1st Army Area Command Lieutenant General Udomdej Sitabutr, followed a meeting of senior army officers at a special army training camp in Kaeng Krajan chaired by the 1st regional army commander.

Lieutenant General Udomdej also ordered agencies concerned to prepare assistance to all victims and those affected by the second tragic incident, saying that the repeated tragedy was initially assumed to have caused by unfavourable weather conditions as well and a thorough official investigation has been continuing. The 1st regional army commander expressed his hope that the rescuers would later find out some survivors.

The Blackhawk, one in only six acquired by the Royal Thai Army, reportedly flew some two kilometres farther to the scene of last Saturday's incident and lost contacts when it was joining two other helicopters of the Thai Ministries of Natural Resources and Environment and Agriculture and Cooperatives in the official operation to recover the five killed in the middle of the national park.

The missing Blackhawk was believed to have crashed, as there was an explosion in the area. Updated reports said that there were nine people on board the ill-fated Blackhawk, including Major General Tawan Ruangsri, Commander of the 9th Infantry Division, two pilots, six army officers and a cameraman of the military-supervised TV Channel 5 in Bangkok.

Meanwhile, attempts to retrieve all the bodies of last Saturday's military helicopter crash have been carried on. (TNA)