The plane carrying 122 people, mostly Myanmar soldiers and family members, crashed after taking off in the south of the country.
The Myanmar military Y-8-200 transport plane departed from the coastal town of Myeik, in the south of the country, at 13:06 (13:36 Hanoi time) to Yangon, the largest city in the country. However, it lost contact with the ground 29 minutes after takeoff, while flying over the Andaman Sea at an altitude of 5,500m, at a point 70km west of the town of Dawei.
Officials have given conflicting figures about the number of people on board. A new update of the Myanmar military says there are 122 people, including 108 Myanmar soldiers and their family members, along with 14 crew members. Passengers included 15 children, 58 adults, 35 soldiers and officers.
A Myanmar military Y-8-200F plane at Rakhine airport in August 2015. (Photo: AFP).
Naing Lin Zaw, a tourism official in the city of Myeik, said Myanmar’s military had found the plane’s wreckage at sea, 218km from Dawei. An unnamed air force source also confirmed that the search and rescue ship had detected the plane’s wreckage. British newspaper Mirror reported unofficially that 15 people survived the plane crash.
However, contrary to AFP’s information, Reuters sources said that they had not found the plane. “We haven’t seen any traces of the plane yet,” Naing Myo Thwin, president of the local funeral association, told Reuters by phone.
An army spokesman in Naypyidaw declined to confirm what the search team had found. He only said the search would continue after dark.
Immediately after learning of the plane’s disappearance, the Myanmar military deployed 6 naval ships and three military aircraft to search. About 300-400 people, including firefighters, doctors and rescue workers gathered on the shore near the town of Launglon, near the area the navy is searching.
“We don’t know exactly what happened to the plane after it lost contact,” said Kyaw Kyaw Htey, a civil aviation official at Myeik airport.
Myanmar General Myat Min Oo said it was raining while the plane was in motion, but the rain was not heavy. Meanwhile, an airport source said the weather was normal. “We think this is a technical error. The weather here is normal,” commented the source.
The black circle represents the location where the plane lost contact with the ground. (Graphic: CNA).
The Y-8 is a medium-sized and medium-range transport aircraft manufactured in China by Shaanxi Aircraft Corporation, based on the Soviet Antonov An-12. It has become one of the most popular military and civilian transport aircraft in China. Beijing exports the aircraft to Myanmar, Sudan and Sri Lanka.
The plane that crashed was purchased in March last year and had flown for 809 hours. These planes are used to transport soldiers’ families from remote areas to the city once a month.
The plane on its way from Myeik to Yangon, crashed near Dawei. (Graphic: asiapearltravels).
Last February, five people were killed when a military plane caught fire shortly after takeoff and crashed in the capital Naypyidaw.