Vientiane - Eight people, including a South African, were killed when a Lao Aviation plane on a internal flight crashed into the remote northeastern mountains, airline officials said on Friday.
Four Indians were among nine survivors from Thursday's crash near the provincial capital of Xam Neua, but all were in critical condition, an official said from Vientiane.
The Chinese-built Yuan-12 aircraft went down in poor visibility shortly after midday (0500 GMT) as it was beginning its final approach on a flight from the capital.
Low cloud cover and smoke from fires lit by local hunters hindered the search operation and the crash site was not found until after dark on Thursday evening, the official said.
The mountainous jungle terrain had made evacuation of the survivors extremely difficult and not all the injured had reached hospital by Friday lunchtime, the official said.
The authorities launched a major search and rescue operation immediately after the plane lost contact with the control tower in Xam Neua at around 12:05 pm (0505 GMT).
A second Yuan-12 was dispatched to look for the crash site while the army was called in to help the search on the ground.
One group of survivors managed to walk away from the crash site and made contact with local villagers at around 5pm (1000 GMT).
The villagers helped them to the nearest road from where they were evacuated to hospital.
The information the survivors were able to provide helped the authorities to locate the crash site a few hours later, but night had already fallen.
Emergency teams continued the rescue effort throughout the night and a helicopter was also drafted in, the official said.
The crash is the fourth to have hit Lao Aviation in the past decade.
In June, a Russian-built MI-18 on a domestic flight from Vientiane to the provincial capital of Phonsavan crashed in the mountains north of the capital, killing all 18 passengers and crew on board.
In 1993 another Yuan-12 crashed near Phonsavan with the loss of 17 passengers and crew on board.
And in 1990 a baby was killed when a Russian-built Antononov 24 overshot the runaway in the northern town of Luang Namtha and crashed into a house. - Sapa-AFP