Physicus
If the impact location on wikipedia is correct, that would indicate something happened halfway through the immediate righthand turn in the missed approach of the VOR DME 15 approach.
Are Laotian pilots perhaps ex military and trained on soviet hardware? If so, spatial disorientation resulting from the attitude indicator working the other way around vs in western airplanes might have been a factor. Crossair 498 comes to mind.
For those who don't know: Soviet era attitude indicators move the airplane symbol, not the background/horizon. So instead of levelling out of a bank, the instinctive reaction would increase the bank, as happened with the Crossair 498 crew (who were Moldavian/Latvian nationals trained on said hardware).
If Lao pilots are not ex military where do you think they get their experience?
We are talking about a poor country where only military and a very few handful of elite can learn to fly. Laos has no flying schools or private flight training.If you've ever been to some of the small airports you'll know facilities are basic to say the least. From my conversations with friends in Lao the weather was not good over the last week. Trying to land in a place like that would not have been easy given the circumstances.
I doubt it was anything more than severe weather that caused this accident.
Worth looking back on the Phuket OneTwoGo accident for more info.