BATU PAHAT: Family members of the Chiang Mai bus crash victims are scheduled to fly to the northern Thai city today via Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Chiu Travel Sdn Bhd general manager Terence Yung said they comprised 15 next of kin from seven families of the victims.
They will depart KLIA for Bangkok at 1.15pm with a connecting flight to Chiang Mai at 5pm today.
“They will find see the situation of those injured at the hospitals and also assist in efforts to bring back the remains of the deceased,” said Yung, which agency helped with the travel arrangements of the family members.
Yung said victims of the crash have been sent to four hospitals: Bangkok Hospital Chiang Mai, McCormick Hospital, Doi Saket Hospital and Suan Dok Hospital.
Yung said the 13 dead Malaysians — 5 men and 8 women between their 20s and 80s — were returning from an overnight trip in Chiang Rai when the accident occurred.
The group of 13 were on a five-day/ four night tour which offers a three-night stay in Chiang Mai and one night in Chiang Rai.
Among those believed to be dead was the tour group leader, Png Ee Ting, 23.
He said three staff members from Chiu Travel would accompany the family members to Chiang Mai today.
“The first thing is to obtain death certificates and the police report. Once this is done, then repatriation can be done,” he said, adding that it could take between five to seven days for the remains to be repatriated, depending on the situation.
The family members left Batu Pahat, Johor early this morning after being contacted by the tour agency yesterday.
“They (the travel agency staff) arranged for us to go to Bangkok today,” said one of the family members who wished to be anonymous.
Another next-of-kin is a woman in her 50s, who said that she was going to identify and bring home the remains of her 53-year-old brother-in-law who died in the accident.
“We were shocked to hear about the accident,” she said, refusing to speak further.
It was believed that the tour agency arranged for the next-of-kin to be taken to Thailand to identify their family members who died.
Additional reporting by Hashini Kavishtri Kannan