From Laos, CEOAFRICA.com gathered that a plane which has 49 passengers on board crashed into a river as a result of bad weather.

The Laos Airlines plane, took off from Vientiane, the capital city, and crashed into the Mekong river very close to its destination of Pakse, with all the 44 passengers and five crew onboard believed to have died.

According to sources, the passengers and crew came from a total of 10 nations, as divers have started putting things in place to retrieve bodies from the submerged wreckage of Flight QV301, although this could be very difficult because of the present weather condition in Laos which made the current in the river very strong and carrying a lot of churned up mud.

Lao Airlines is state-owned, and in the past had a patchy safety record. Until a decade ago, it operated mainly Russian or Chinese-made aircraft, but has modernised its fleet recently with EU-manufactured planes. Its last fatal accident was back in October 2000.

Seventeen Laos nationals were on board, plus travellers from France, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, Canada, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and the US.