Bangkok, Thailand
CNN
—

A plane with nine people on board crashed near the Thai capital Bangkok on Thursday, sparking a large-scale search operation in which workers trudged through mud and dug through the dense mangrove cover late into the night.

Two Thai pilots and five Chinese and two Thai passengers on board are said to have died during the investigation into the crash.

According to the government’s public relations office in Chachoengsao province, the small plane took off from Bangkok’s main international airport at 2:46 p.m. local time, heading for Trat airport in the east of the country.

Contact was lost about ten minutes after the flight began, the office said in a statement.

Residents of Bang Pakong district in Chachoengsao reported seeing the plane fall from the sky and “explode loudly” on impact, with debris damaging surrounding houses.

“I was sitting in front of my house. The plane flew over my house with a loud engine noise. Only seconds later, it crashed right here with a loud bang,” a resident told officials in a video shared by the provincial office.

The cause of the crash is still unclear.

Parts of the plane were found scattered in the mud, along with nearly 70 body parts that were taken to a police hospital for identification, the provincial office said.

However, the search was delayed by several hours due to logistical difficulties, it was said. The crash occurred in a mangrove forest where the ground was wet due to flooding from a nearby river.

Photos and videos released by the office show large groups of rescue workers and emergency personnel on the scene wearing headlamps and digging through debris – including suitcases and open bags – as darkness falls. Large excavators dig through mud and mangrove trees, and some workers stand in knee-deep ponds to fish out debris.

The river’s flooding made the search even more difficult, as rescue teams had to pump out water and build dams to prevent more water from pouring in, the provincial office said. The search was suspended at 2 a.m. and resumed Friday morning.

The office said authorities would analyze the plane’s wreckage to determine the cause of the crash. The plane did not have a flight recorder and communicated directly with air traffic control.

This story has been updated with additional information.