10 die in Thai chopper crash
Source: 08-AUG-2008 Intellasia | The Australian
Aug 8, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM Ten members of Thailand's armed forces were killed today when their military helicopter crashed while on a mission in the insurgency-hit far south, an army spokesman said.

The bodies of Thai army personnel lie under a crashed helicopter in a jungle in southern Thailand's Yala Province August 6, 2008. A Thai air force helicopter crashed on Wednesday in the country's troubled south, killing all 10 aboard, an army spokesman said, the second military helicopter to go down in the region in less than two months. REUTERS/Stringer (THAILAND)

The UH-1H chopper was on its way to the Betong district in Yala province from a nearby air force base when it smashed into thick forest just before midday.

"All 10 people on board were killed and their bodies are already recovered,'' Colonel Acra Tiproch said from Yala.

The pilot, co-pilot, seven other members of the air force and one army official were killed in the crash.

Acra said they suspected technical malfunction was to blame and ruled out any involvement of separatist rebels.

"There are no militants operating near the crash site,'' he said.

In June, four military officers and six forensic officials were killed when a military helicopter crashed in the same province. The army blamed a technical fault for that incident.

There is a strong military presence in Thailand's three southernmost Muslim-majority provinces, where more than 3,300 people have been killed since a separatist insurgency broke out in January 2004.

The far south was an autonomous Malay sultanate until Thailand annexed it in 1902, provoking decades of tension.