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Soldiers have fired at a Bangkok Airways passenger jet as it circled in bad weather. Picture: AFP Source: AP
CAMBODIAN troops have fired shots at a passenger aircraft
flying near the country's disputed border with Thailand, believing it to be a
spy plane.
"The Cambodian military fired because there was a Thai
passenger plane - Bangkok Airways - which could not land at Siem Reap airport
because of bad weather," said Thai deputy army spokesman Colonel Sirichan
Ngathong. [Cambodian soldiers said it was a Thai spy plane, not a Bangkok Airways plane].
"It was misunderstood by Cambodia to be spy
plane," he said, adding that no one was hurt in the incident near the
northern Cambodian tourist destination of Siem Reap.
Cambodian military at the border - the site of deadly
territorial clashes between the neighbouring countries last year - confirmed
troops had opened fire at an aircraft.
"It was dark so we could not see what type of plane it
was. But it was circling many times and then our soldiers fired 18 shots from a
machine gun, but it missed the plane because it was flying very high,"
Commander Seng Phearin said.
"I think a passenger plane would not fly around the
border. We suspected it was a spy plane, so we fired to defend our
airspace," he said, adding the aircraft had been around 10km inside
Cambodia.
He said the incident happened at 7pm local time (10pm AEST)
on Wednesday, although the Thai authorities said it occurred Thursday morning.
AFP was unable to immediately contact Bangkok Airways.
Cambodia and Thailand traded heavy arms fire over a disputed
border in early 2011 under the previous Thai government, but ties have warmed
significantly since Yingluck Shinawatra took power in Thailand.
Ms Yingluck, whose brother Thaksin has remained close to
Phnom Penh strongman Hun Sen since being deposed from power in a 2006 coup, is
due to meet the Cambodian leader for talks in Siem Reap on Friday.
The meeting will be on the sidelines of the largest ever
gathering of American businesses in Asia hosted by US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton and attended by a score of regional dignitaries.
6 comments:
"It was dark so we could not see what type of plane it was."
So, why the B-747 in the picture.
Next time, why don't you post space shuttle?
that is stupid pilot,
this pilot was using drug + drinking hot liquor,,
of course, this pilot should be removing from pilot associations
don't know how to flight airplane
Well, blame! blame! blame!!!! Why don't you fly a plane!? We human makes mistake non-perfect,we all do our best day in,day out to serve the public.Thank god that this case is no fatality or accidently shoot down the passengers plane.
The Pilot did a fine job to avoid getting hit by machine gun by flying a plane higher than usually,no one can control mother nature (storm) blame game must stop and non good come out of the blame-game!!!!
This is what it looks like when you give AK-47 to a chimp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhxqIITtTtU
The same thing also happens when you give AK-47 to iill-disciplined untrained Khmer soldier.
They randomly shot everything, especially when they are drunk.
There are many time the dispute along the border and we can't prove who started the shooting first.
But this time they got caught with no word to say.
It's not safe for tourist to fly from Bangkok to Cambdodia now.
12:43pm
Lady-boy !!!!! please becarefull what you just said,Get the fact first idiot.
Love khmer
Listen, Cambodian troops said it was a spy plane, not the Bangkok Airways. If it was a spy plane, Cambodian troops have every right to shoot down that plane for violating Cambodian airspace.
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