June 8, 2017
A Myanmar military aircraft en route to Yangon from Myeik with 122 people on board went missing yesterday. The flight was half an hour short routine trip. According to BBC, both the debris and bodies were located in the Andaman Sea.
There were 14 crew members along with 106 military personnel, family members and children. The military department declared that the Chinese built Shaanxi Y-8-200F aircraft was purchased in March last year and had flown 809 hours.
A total of six ships and three planes were dispatched for search and rescue operations. Airlive.net published that 3 to 15 passengers survived however; the information from their sources is still to be confirmed.
CNN updated, “Aircraft parts and the remains of two adults and a child, along with life jackets and luggage were discovered at 8:18 a.m. Thursday local time (9:48 p.m. Wednesday ET), 14 miles west of Kyauk Ni Maw in Rakhine state, the statement said. The recovery operation is ongoing.”
The weather was normal at Myeik airport so, it was not the cause for the missing plane. According to CNN meteorologist Tom Sater, “This is the wet season and thunderstorms and showers do develop but nothing significant was noted at the time the plane went missing.”