29 bodies found after plane goes missing
Print Edition
RESCUERS pulled 29 bodies from the sea off Myanmar’s southern coast yesterday during the search for a military plane that went missing with 122 soldiers, family members and crew on board.
Eight children were among the bodies found in the Andaman Sea near the coastal town of Launglon by navy and civilian ships, the military said on Facebook.
“I only want to cry, I have nothing,” said Yuzana, 19, whose parents and younger brother were on the aircraft when it went missing on Wednesday.
The weekly flight, from several coastal towns to Myanmar’s largest city of Yangon, had been carrying the family to a reunion after a two-year separation.
“My father said he bought a mobile phone for me. My mom bought a bag for my school,” Yuzana told reporters.
Scores of rescue workers in the fishing village of Sanlan, about 600 kilometers from Yangon, braved stormy weather to carry ashore the dead, wrapped in plastic, from a military ship.
Many bodies had fragmented into several pieces and no victim wearing a life jacket has yet been recovered, said Hla Thein, one of those directly involved in the rescue.
More than a dozen relatives gathered at a crisis center in an army base in the southern coastal town of Myeik, some weeping, pictures released by the military showed.
Nine navy ships, five military planes and two helicopters will keep up the search for survivors for a second day, assisted by civilian boats, the military said.
The Chinese-made Y-8-200F transport plane lost contact 29 minutes after takeoff while flying at 18,000 feet (5,486 meters) over the Andaman Sea, about 70 kilometers west of the town of Dawei, the military said.
An aircraft wheel, two life jackets and some bags with clothes — believed to be from the missing plane — were found earlier.
Some patches of oil were spotted 30 kilometers from Dawei, the military said.
The cause of the incident has yet to be confirmed.
Survivors are “very unlikely” more than 24 hours after the plane lost contact, despite warm sea temperatures in the area, said Charitha Pattiaratchi, a coastal oceanography expert at the University of Western Australia.
Myanmar authorities may soon change their focus from rescue to salvage, aiming to collect debris and investigate the cause of the accident, he added.
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