A solemn ceremony was held in the Lao capital city of Vientiane on December 16 to commemorate those killed in a plane crash last October.

The ATR-72 aircraft of the Lao Airlines plunged into the Mekong River on October 16, around an hour after it took off from Vientiane , killing all 49 people onboard, including 44 passengers and five crew. More than half of them are foreigners from nearly a dozen countries.

The event, held by Lao Viet Insurance Company (LVI), the Laos ’ national flag carrier and the Lao Buddhist Coalition Central Committee, was attended by high-ranking Lao officials and representatives of embassies that lost citizens in the crash.

On this occasion, LVI, a joint venture between BIDV Insurance Company (BIC) and the Lao Bank for Foreign Trade, presented compensation for the accident.

Earlier, the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) extended condolences and support to families of the aircraft’s crew and instructed LVI to promptly handle the compensation work.-VNA