A video shows rescue teams in Fresno, California, finally retrieving the bodies of two Thai students from the wreckage of a car that plunged off a cliff in July.
It took a total of eight hours for SAR and the California Highway Patrol’s Air Support Unit to successfully move the car and remove two bodies from it on September 1. Video of the recovery was released Thursday.
The victims were confirmed to be Pakapol Bhakapon Chairatnathrongporn, 28, of Thailand and Thiwadee Saengsuriyarit, 24, of Thailand, students enrolled at the University of South Florida..
A video shows rescue teams finally pulling the wreckage of a car that plunged off a cliff in July, killing two Thai students after it sat in river in central California for over five weeks
Thiwadee ‘Min’ Saengsuriyarit (pictured left) and Pakkaphol ‘Gof’ Chairattanasongporn went missing in late July. Their bodies were identified after the car was pulled from the river
On July 26, the red rental car traveling on Highway 180 in central California crashed through a guard rail and hurtled off a cliff, falling 500 feet into the Kings River below.
For a little more than a month the mangled vehicle remained lodged in the river rapids with the bodies still inside because of the water’s violent flow.
Finally the victims’ families will be able to put their bodies to rest.
The Fresno Sheriff’s Office posted the video on YouTube with a description of what happened during the recovery mission in Kings River
The bodies were trapped in the wreckage from July 26 until September 1 because officials said it was too dangerous to get them out of the river
The video shows the bodies being airlifted out of the river before they are taken to a coroner. The coroner used fingerprints to identify the bodies
The Fresno Sheriff’s Office posted the video on YouTube with the following description: ‘One of our SAR deputies made his way out to the car and secured it by attaching a cable to the car from a device called a Griphoist, which is basically a manual winch system.
‘Deputies on the side of the river tethered the Griphoist to a rock and then slowly ratcheted it, pulling it a short distance into slower moving water. This made conditions much safer for deputies to access the car.
The team then used tools to get inside the car and were able to free both bodies. Deputies hoisted each body up to the crew aboard H40 and they flew the bodies to the road side where a coroner transportation unit was stationed.’
Saengsuriyarit and Chairattanasongporn were reported missing on July 26.
They were apparently driving across the country and were last seen at Reedley Inn located in Fresno by the owner of the motel where the two were staying.
A helicopter scouting the area found the car standing half upright in King’s River.
Police said that the airbags had been deployed and were blocking authorities from seeing inside.
The photo above shows the guard rail that the students tore through on July 26 before plummeting into the canyon in a red rental car
Fresno police rightly assumed that the car was occupied by the two Thai students who were reported missing on July 26
The Thai consulate in Los Angeles worked closely with the local police and notified the families of the missing students.
The Thai consulate noted that members of the Thai community were becoming increasingly frustrated with the slow process of retrieving the car.
‘It was agonizing for them,’ said Tanee Sangrat, consul general at Thailand’s consulate in Los Angeles.
The relatives have come to ‘accept the fates of their loved ones,’ he said.
The story has gripped Thailand, Sangrat said.
Authorities have not yet released the cause of death.
Fresno officials turned over the remains to a funeral home and relatives will have them cremated before a ceremony expected later this week at a Buddhist temple in North Hollywood, Thai and Fresno County officials said.
Relatives of Saengsuriyarit will take her ashes back to Thailand, while Chairatnathrongporn’s cremated remains will be scattered in California because ‘he loved the U.S.’
The recovery effort did not include a second car in the same stretch of the river believed to hold a missing couple from China. Publicity of the first stranded car and the trail of wreckage led investigators to the white car submerged nearby.
Authorities have linked it with married couple Yinan Wang, 31, and Jie Song 30, missing seen since early August.
The river’s flow has to drop even more before it’s safe for the second recovery, officials said.