Debris was found scattered from Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam, to the Cambodian coast in Kampot province and Sihanoukville from an unidentified aircraft that eyewitnesses say exploded over the coastline Tuesday morning, officials said.
However, Cambodian aviation officials reiterated Wednesday their claims from the previous day that there was no evidence of a downed aircraft.
But by 4 pm Tuesday, one villager from Kampot district’s Prek Tnort commune had already handed police a piece of metal he said fell from the sky into his rice field, nearly hitting him, Kampot province deputy police Chief Pen Sivuthai said.
In addition, villagers’ fishing nets caught four more metal shards Tuesday night on the Kampot coast in Prek Tnort that together weighed 12.3 kg, commune police Chief Pheav Sopheak said.
“We hope to find some more pieces of metal in our location,” Pheav Sopheak said.
Kampot province deputy police Chief Tum Sothy confirmed that metal debris was found along the coast and brought to the police station.
“Our police suspect it was a drone mission, and it was at the end of its time and exploded in the air,” Tum Sothy said by telephone Wednesday.
Huy Heng, police chief of Toek Thla commune in Sihanoukville’s Prey Nop district, said fishermen from his commune also dredged up pieces of metal from the coast Wednesday morning.
Mao Havanall, secretary of state for the State Secretariat for Civil Aviation, dismissed the incident as a “rumor” and reiterated Wednesday that air traffic control at Phnom Penh International Airport did not monitor any falling aircraft along the coast.
Neither Vietnam nor Thailand has informed Cambodia of any missing aircraft, Mao Havanall said, and all Cambodian military aircraft are accounted for.
“We do not have any news from any neighboring country to inform us that they are missing any aircraft,” he said by telephone.
The National Committee for Disaster Management will not be investigating the scene, Mao Havanall said, “because it’s not a real story. It’s just a rumor.”
“Maybe it was a UFO,” he suggested with a chuckle.
Societe Concessionnaire des Aeroports, the operator of the Sihanoukville, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap airports, still had no knowledge of any incident Wednesday, SCA spokesman Khek Norinda said.
However, the Vietnamese government is conducting an investigation into the possible aircraft explosion, said Vietnamese Embassy spokesman Trinh Ba Cam. He cited Vietnamese state media, which reported soldiers on Phu Quoc Island were sent Tuesday to look for wreckage, and that islanders had found shards of metal along the coast. “The investigation is going on [to] check whether the aircraft was Vietnam’s or others’,” Trinh Ba Cam said by telephone Wednesday.
Thai Embassy First Secretary Chaturont Chaiyakam could not be reached for comment.
(Additional reporting by Stephen Kurczy)
