Vietnam probes mystery ‘UFO’ incident

An official in nearby Cambodia reported Tuesday that a small plane had crashed in its southern Kampot province, o­nly to retract his comments later.

But Cambodia’s civil aviation authority said that airlines denied missing any planes and there was no trace of any crash.

Still, the reports from Phu Quoc Island – situated in the southern Vietnamese province of Kien Giang and within sight of Kampot – do point to something, according to military and provincial officials.

The island district’s military chief Colonel Nguyen Van Qui was quoted as saying yesterday that “an unidentified flying object exploded at about 10 a.m. o­n May 27 over the northern part of Phu Quoc Island.”

When residents found metal debris, district authorities said they contacted airlines in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand but did not receive immediate news of any missing aircraft by late Tuesday.

“We have informed the Ministry of Defense,” Dinh Khoa Toan, deputy chairman of the island’s People’s Committee, said.

“We expect the ministry will send some experts to clarify whether the metal came from a crashed plane.

“We have collected several metal pieces in various parts of the island.”

Huynh Tan Hung, an official of the People’s Committee of the island’s Ganh Dau Commune, said local people had heard a series of noises, including a loud bang, just after 10 a.m. o­n Tuesday.

“We all saw something burning in the sky, north of Phu Quoc Island. The fire was in the sky near Cambodian territory. In our commune, we collected o­ne piece of metal, measuring o­ne meter by about 60 centimeters.”

A soldier o­n duty at the Military Command of Phu Quoc Island, identifying himself as Tuan, said they had received seven metal pieces that were over o­ne meter long from local people.

“We have contacted responsible agencies and we are sure that no Vietnamese planes, civil or military, were flying there at that time,” he said.

“We don’t have sufficient facilities or experts here, so we cannot tell now whether these metal parts came from a plane.”

In Cambodia, Kampot’s deputy police chief In China said villagers reported hearing a “loud explosion,” but that all authorities had been able to find was a “small piece of metal” in the jungle near the coast.

Keo Sivorn, chief of flight operations at Cambodia’s civil aviation body, said no plane had crashed.