Officials Say Bodies And Debris Found From Missing Myanmar Military Plane

Source: NPR

June 7, 2017·3:50 PM ET

Updated 11 p.m. ET

Myanmar officials say bodies and debris have been found from a military plane that disappeared Wednesday with more than 100 passengers and crew aboard.

Military spokesman Gen. Myat Min Oo says the wreckage was found in the sea west of the town of Laung Lone, according to the Associated Press.

Gen. Myat Min Oo told the news service that the aircraft was a Chinese-made Y-8 turboprop that had logged 809 flying hours since the military purchased it in March 2016 Just 29 minutes after takeoff, contact with the aircraft was lost — it was reportedly flying at an altitude of 18,000 feet and was about 20 miles west of the town of Dawei

Kyaw Kyaw Htey, a civil aviation official at Myeik airport, told Reuters that visibility had been good and the weather normal when the aircraft took off. Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that residents said weather in the area along the flight path was bad, with pounding monsoon rains.

Read more: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/07/531914734/myanmar-military-plane-carrying-more-than-100-people-disappears

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The wire service reported that hundreds of people gathered on the shore near the town of Launglon, close to where the navy was searching. Maj. Gen. Aung Ye Win, the chief of military information, said no traces of the plane or its passengers had been spotted, the Times reported.