Laos Airlines plane crash caused by 'wind shear' from Typhoon Nari

The Laos Airlines plane crash that killed all 49 passengers on board was reportedly caused by the wind shear resulting from “remnants of Typhoon Nari”, a Lao Airlines official said. 

The wind shear is an atmospheric phenomenon which involves a change in wind speed or/and direction with the change in altitude. 

The plane crashed as it “ran into extreme bad weather conditions”, the Laos Ministry of Public Works and Transport said in a statement. The flight QV30149 that was operating an ATR 72-600 twin turboprop engine, was flying from capital Vientiane to town Pakse and crashed few kilometers off its destination on an island near Mekong river on Wednesday. 

According to a top aviation official of Laos Airlines, Chalerm Taiyalad, the plane crashed just before landing as it was raining very heavily and the gusts from tail end of Typhoon Nari causd the pilot to lose control of the plane, the CNN reported. 

The airline said that of 49 dead, 44 were passengers and the remaining five were crew members. 

There were seventeen Laos nationals on board along with others who belonged to France, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, Canada, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and the US.

Meanwhile Typhoon Nari, which hit Vietnam's central coast early Tuesday, has claimed 11 lives and flooded tens of thousands of homes.