Six Australians are among 49 people feared to have died when plane crashed into the Mekong River as it was coming into land in bad weather in southern Laos.
The Lao Airlines flight crashed on Wednesday, apparently killing everyone on board, including passengers from 11 countries, the Lao government says.
The Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra says six Australians are thought to have been aboard the flight that came down 8km from Pakse.
A DFAT spokesman says the Australian embassy has been told not to expect any survivors.
"We understand there were six Australians listed as boarding a Lao Airlines flight from Vientiane to Pakse that crashed," the spokesman said.
"Australian consular officials are in contact with the families of those thought to be on the flight.
"Lao authorities have told our embassy in Vientiane they do not expect any survivors."
Lao officials say 44 passengers and five crew members were aboard flight QV301 from the Lao capital to Pakse.
Earlier reports had said there were 39 passengers aboard, including five Australians.
"Upon preparing to land at Pakse Airport the aircraft ran into extreme bad weather conditions and reportedly crashed into the Mekong River," the Lao government said in a statement.
The airline flies an ATR-72 twin-engine turboprop plane on the 467km route.
An unconfirmed passenger list suggest that more than half of the people aboard were foreign nationals, including those from France, South Korea, the US, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Canada and Malaysia. Some 17 people were listed as Laos nationals.
Images shared on social media, which can't be independently verified, show people dragging broken shards of the plane from the river.
A Laos Airlines employee contacted by phone at Vientiane's Wattay airport says a news conference will be held on Thursday.
