Lao government offices today observed a minute of silence to pay tribute to the 49 people who died last week in an airplane crash into the Mekong River, state media said.

The government instructed state officials to hold the event at 2.15pm local time today, the Vientiane Times and state-run radio reported.

A separate ceremony was held at the same time near the site of the crash in Pakse in Champasak province, to commemorate the dead, more than half of whom were foreign nationals.

Lao Airlines Flight QV 301 from the capital Vientiane to the southern city of Pakse crashed last Wednesday after hitting turbulence. The national airline is a state-owned enterprise.

As of Sunday, 43 bodies had been retrieved by Lao and Thai rescuers.

Search teams have been slowed by strong currents and turbid waters in the Mekong. Authorities had not yet located the fuselage.

“We can identify the general location of the plane, but have not yet been able to find it,” Yakua Lopangkao, director-general of the department of civil aviation, told the Vientiane Times.

The aircraft’s flight data recorder has not yet been found either. The twin-engine turboprop ATR 72-600 had been delivered from the French-Italian aircraft maker in March.

Experts from ATR arrived in Laos over the weekend to assist with investigations into the crash.

There were 44 passengers aboard comprising 16 Lao, seven French nationals, six Australians, five Thais, three South Koreans, three Vietnamese, one American, one Chinese, one Canadian, one Malaysian national, and one person from Taiwan.

It was the worst crash for the national airline since 1999.

Lao Airlines, established in 1976, currently owns 14 aircraft.

- dpa