Royal Air Cambodge has again suspended flights to Koh Kong province after the second RCAF plane in six months hit a land mine on the airport’s runway, an airline official said Tuesday.
The carrier, which flies its planes between Phnom Penh and Koh Kong on Tuesdays and Sundays, will not resume service until cleared by the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation, the official said.
A senior official with the secretariat, Pan Chanlaroath, said aviation authorities were waiting for military and Cambodian Mine Action Center officials to check the runway for more land mines. “It might take a little while,” he said.
Koh Kong provincial officials cited technical experts on Tuesday as saying that the runway will be checked for mines by the end of the week.
Royal Air Cambodge suspended services to Koh Kong earlier this year when an RCAF plane carrying an aid mission hit a land mine on the airport’s dirt runway.