Laos crash probe hones in on black box Investigators believe they have found the black box from a plane that crashed in southern Laos. INVESTIGATORS in Laos say they've picked up underwater signals they believe are coming from the black box of a passenger plane that crashed into the Mekong River. However, they say the strong currents are thwarting attempts to find it. The Lao Airlines ATR-72 turboprop plane crashed on Wednesday after getting caught in a heavy storm as it approached Pakse Airport in southern Laos. It struck a riverbank and then ploughed into the swift-running Mekong. All 49 people on board, including six Australians, are presumed dead. As of Sunday, 41 bodies had been recovered, investigators say. French air crash investigators began working at the crash zone on Saturday along with a team from the aircraft manufacturers, bringing much-needed technical expertise to the operation in one of Asia's poorest countries. Navy divers from Thailand are also helping the search. Yakua Lopangkao, director-general of Laos' Department of Civil Aviation, says investigators using sonar and other equipment picked up signals from underwater and have narrowed their search to the area "we believe might be the location of the black box." "But the search teams still cannot retrieve it because the water was deep and muddy and the current was very strong," he said. At this point, we cannot find anything. According to the airline, 44 passengers and five crew members were on the flight. The passengers included 16 Lao nationals, seven French, the six Australians, five Thais, three Koreans, three Vietnamese and one person each from China, Malaysia, Taiwan and the US.