CNN.com - Bomb wrecked Thai PM's plane

The blast killed one person

By John Raedler
CNN Bangkok Bureau Chief

BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has confirmed the cause of a fire which destroyed a plane he was about to board was "definitely an explosive."

"We have found traces of several kinds of chemicals," he told reporters at his office complex in Bangkok on Monday.

The prime minister was one of 149 passengers who were scheduled to board the Thai Airways flight to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand Saturday.

"We'll have a better idea later today or tomorrow," he said.

This is Thaksin's clearest, most definite statement yet about the cause of the blaze, bolstering suspicions that the incident was an attempt to kill him.

Witnesses report hearing blasts

Thirty-five minutes before the Boeing 737-400 was scheduled to take off witnesses say they heard explosions.

The plane, parked at gate 62 of the airport's domestic terminal, was quickly engulfed in flames.

Five members of the cabin crew were the only people aboard at the time. One of them, a male flight attendant, was killed instantly.

Seven people -- cabin crew and ground staff -- were injured.

Thaksin was still en route to the airport when the explosion happened.

He subsequently flew to Chiang Mai aboard an air force plane, and returned to Bangkok on another air force plane on Sunday.

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