Vietnam Airlines plane crashes in flames at Phnom Penh airport; 64 dead
     PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (September 3, 1997 09:04 a.m. EDT) ---- A
 Vietnam Airlines jetliner crashed in a ball of flames Wednesday on a
 landing approach to Phnom Penh's international airport, killing 64
 people. Only two young boys, a Korean and a Thai, survived.
     The Soviet-built Tupolev 134 plane, arriving from Ho Chi Minh
 City, went down in a rice paddy about a half-mile south of the run-
 way during a downpour, clipping palm trees and exploding into flames
 on impact, witnesses said.
     Four people initially survived, but two men -- one a Japanese --
 died at the capital's Calmette Hospital, doctors said. A Korean boy,
 Sung Hach, 4, whose parents were killed, clung to life with serious
 burns. A 1-year-old Thai boy, Phai Bun, had a broken leg.
     Bodies from the crash were strewn around the fire-blackened
 wreckage. Thousands of Phnom Penh residents converged on the crash
 scene, and witnesses said some police officers joined civilians in
 going through the pockets of some of the victims. The looters re-
 portedly stole scattered luggage and pieces of the plane until they
 were chased off by other officers blowing whistles.
     After the looters were chased away, police and rescue workers
 gathered the bodies and brought them to a nearby military airfield,
 where they were covered with white sheets.
     The cause of the crash was unknown. The wreckage was still
 burning more than one hour after the 1:40 p.m. (12:40 a.m. EDT)
 crash.
     Fire trucks and rescue workers were hampered by a narrow,
 flooded dirt road that was the only route to the crash site. A
 plume of smoke rose over the airport.
     A Cambodian man surveying the carnage wept and cried: "My
 brother! My brother's supposed to be here."
     The plane was carrying six crew and 60 passengers, mostly
 nationals of South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, Vietnam Airlines
 officials in Ho Chi Minh City said. The aircraft, designed in
 the 1960s, seats 67 passengers normally, airline officials said.
     South Korean Ambassador Park Kyung Tai said 18 passengers
 from South Korea were on board. Taiwanese state radio, citing
 Taiwanese businessmen and lawmaker Tseng Chen-nung from Phnom
 Penh's airport, said at least 21 Taiwanese had been aboard.
     An unspecified number of Germans also were believed to be on
 board, said Cambodia's secretary of state for information, Khieu
 Kanharith.
     There were no reports of any Americans on board.
     Police were looking for scraps of paper and passports that
 might help identify the victims.
     Witnesses said that the plane appeared to be making a landing
 approach when the pilot realized he had overshot the runway. The
 nose started to rise, but then the plane crashed.
     "I was playing and I heard the sound of the plane, and then a
 very noisy BOOM!" said Roeun Phirum, a 12-year-old boy. "The plane
 hit a bunch of trees and went into the paddy and slid about 200
 yards. It hit a cow tied to bamboo trees."
     Only the tail section of the plane and a portion of the fuse-
 lage remained intact.
     Ib Vanna, a farmer who was plowing his field, was about a half-
 mile from the plane when it crashed.
     "There was this huge explosion," Ib Vanna said. "It sounded like
 the gas tanks had exploded."
     The airport was not closed. Only one flight between Bangkok and
 Phnom Penh was canceled.
     Vietnam Airlines was one of the first commercial carriers to
 resume service to Phnom Penh's Pochentong International Airport in
 the wake of a bloody coup in July where fighting was heavy around
 the airport.
     The airport was badly looted during the fighting by soldiers
 loyal to coup leader Hun Sen.
     A Vietnam Airlines Tu-134 crashed in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1988,
 killing 75 people.
     The Tu-134 was once the mainstay of Vietnam Airlines' fleet. In
 recent years, Vietnam has steadily been replacing its aging fleet of
 Soviet-built aircraft with Western planes, including Boeings. The
 airline signed a $15 million syndicated loan with ANZ Investment
 Bank on Aug. 25 to help buy new aircraft.
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