Related News
Myanmar's military finds crashed plane, bodies: spokesman
Online Edition
MYANMAR'S military said Thursday it has found the wreckage of a plane in the Andaman Sea that went missing with around 120 people on board, along with several bodies.
A navy search ship scouring the waves found the bodies of a man, woman and child, as well as pieces of luggage, safety jackets and a tyre presumed to be from the aircraft's wheel.
"We have found the plane and some dead bodies this morning about 8.25 am (0155 GMT)," a spokesman from the military's information team told AFP.
The commander in chief's office confirmed wreckage had been found off the coast of Launglon, in southern Myanmar, on Thursday morning.
Nine navy ships and three air force planes had been dispatched in a desperate search for the aircraft, which disappeared on Wednesday afternoon as it flew from the southern city of Myeik to Yangon, Myanmar's commercial heart.
There was conflicting information on the number of people on board, but in the latest update the military said the plane was carrying a total of 122 people.
More than half of the passengers were from military families, including 15 children, along with 35 soldiers and 14 crew members, the army chief's office said in a statement.
Some were travelling for medical check-ups or to attend school in Yangon.
Search and rescue efforts continued Thursday morning as relatives of the passengers braced for the worst.
Wai Lin Aung said his mother had been on the plane after visiting his sister, who is married to a soldier based in Myeik.
"The whole family is very sad and we are waiting for news," he told AFP.
It is monsoon season in Myanmar but there were no reports of stormy weather in the area at the time.
The commander-in-chief's office said the plane lost contact with air traffic control at 1:35 pm (07:05 GMT) on Wednesday, about half an hour after takeoff.
The Myanmar military named the captain of the Shaanxi Y8 four-engine turboprop as Lieutenant Colonel Nyein Chan, who it said had more than 3,000 hours of flying experience.
The plane was bought in March 2016 and had a total of 809 flying hours.
The debris was found in the Andaman Sea, north of the last known location of Malaysia Airlines flight 370.
The plane went missing in March 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, but no wreckage has ever been found.
Myanmar's military fleet has a chequered recent history of plane crashes.
A five-strong crew died when an air force plane burst into flames soon after taking off from the capital Naypyidaw in February last year.
Three army officers were also killed in June when their Mi-2 helicopter crashed into a hillside and burst into flames in south-central Bago.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
