2ND LD: Searchers find no survivors aboard crashed plane in Cambodia

(EDS: RECASTING WITH HIGHER DEATH TOLL, DETAILS)

Cambodian search and rescue teams on Wednesday found no survivors upon reaching the remote crash site of a Russian-owned plane carrying 24 people that went down amid stormy weather in southern Cambodia on Monday, according to government officials and sources at the scene.

The heavily wooded crash site was located by a private helicopter on Wednesday morning after two days of intense searching in Kampot Province involving more than 2,000 personnel, including crack paratroop units, police and civilians, the sources said.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith told Kyodo News it appears all those who were on the Antonov An-24 plane operated by Russian-owned local airline PMTair are dead.

Airline sources said the plane was carrying an Uzbek pilot, seven Cambodian airline staff and 13 South Korean and three Czech passengers when it went down.

It was originally believed that only 22 people were aboard the plane, but it later became known that two Cambodian airline staff who were not on the passenger list had also boarded it.

A source at the crash site said the plane had evidently not exploded and was relatively intact except for a broken nose and left wing.

The plane had taken off Monday from Siem Reap, the northern Cambodian city where the Angkor temple complex is located, for the southern city Sihanoukville, which neighbors Kampot.

The crash site is 56.7 kilometers short of Sihanoukville airport, on a hillside between the Bokor and Damrey Mountains, officials said.

Severe weather is thought to have contributed to the crash and bad weather seriously hampered the search efforts, which were led by Prime Minister Hun Sen from Tuesday.