East Asia, which has suffered a run of fatal air crashes during the last 18 months, has seen two more, with transport accidents in Mongolia and Laos leaving another 50 dead.
MIAT-Mongolian Airlines has suffered its second loss of a Harbin Y-12 turboprop in less than 12 months. The 19-seat twin turboprop crashed near the top of a 2,000m (6,500ft) high mountain on 26 May. The aircraft appears to have been overloaded, with a total of 28 passengers and crew reportedly killed in the accident, including children.
This latest crash follows the loss of a MIAT-operated Chinese-built Yun-12 in June 1997, killing seven passengers.
InLaos on 25 May, an air force Yakovlev Yak-40 crashed, killing 23 people, including a senior Vietnamese army officer and deputy defence minister. The aircraft, carrying the military delegation from Vientiane to Xiang Khoang, crashed in jungle during a heavy rain storm.
Meanwhile a Cambodian investigation into the 3 September 1997 crash of a Vietnam Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 at Phnom Penh has reportedly attributed the accident to pilot error. The captain is said to have ignored air traffic control instructions to change runways and the advice of fellow crew to abort the landing because of poor visibility and bad weather. It then clipped a tree on approach and stalled on a late go-around, killing all but two of the 66 people aboard.
Source: Flight International