Myanmar Military Plane Missing: Debris Of Transport Aircraft Found In Andaman Sea

UPDATE: 4:48 a.m. EDT- A total of 29 bodies have been discovered since 3:30 p.m. MMT (5:00 a.m. EDT) Thursday from the Myanmar military transporter aircraft that went missing Wednesday. The aircraft's debris was recovered from the Andaman Sea.

Original story:

Several bodies and debris from the wreckage of a military transporter plane that went missing with 122 people on board, was found Thursday in the Andaman Sea, the Burmese military confirmed.

Military officials said the plane disappeared shortly after taking off from an airbase located in the southern part of Myanmar on Wednesday afternoon.

The plane took off from Myeik in Myanmar and was on its way to Yangon. The debris of the crashed plane was found in the sea off the coastal town of Dawei. The aircraft was said to be a Chinese made Y8 transporter, which was carrying 14 crew members as well as 106 military personnel and their family members, including children.

Read: Where Is The Myanmar Missing Plane?

“The military plane went missing and lost contact after it took off from Myeik, and now the military has started a sea and air search with naval ships and military aircraft and is preparing for rescue operations,” General Myat Min Oo said.

The army officials said that they lost communication with the flight Wednesday, shortly after the flight was half an hour into the regular short trip while flying at 5,485 meters (17995.41 ft) over the Andaman Sea, about 70 kilometers (43.49 miles) west of the town of Dawei. There were no reports indicating bad weather, even though it was monsoon in Myanmar.

“We don't know what exactly happened to this plane after it lost contact,” said Kyaw Kyaw Htey, a civil aviation official at Myeik airport.

The military said that three bodies, including a child and two adults, were found 35 kilometers (21.74 miles) from the southern coastal town Launglon by a navy ship.

Ships and planes have been searching along the coast of southern Myanmar till late night. The military had begun a massive search for the plane and its passengers soon after it went missing on Wednesday. They used nine navy ships and three military planes to search for the aircraft, according to a Facebook post on the military’s official page, the Guardian reported.

The naval search was concentrated mostly along the shore near the town of Launglon and about 300 to 400 people, including medics, firefighters, emergency and welfare officials also gathered in the area to assist in the search, according to Naing Myo Thwin, a member of the local hospital's emergency team.

The missing aircraft was purchased from China in March 2016 and had a total of 809 flying hours, according to the military. Local news media outlets quoted Myanmar’s Defense Ministry as saying that in 2015, the Air Force in the country had bought 29 airplanes and seven helicopters in the previous four years that led to an overall increase in military spending in Southeast Asia.

They also stated that the aircraft was carrying 2.1 tons of supplies.

The military put the total number of people on board as 122, among the passengers were 35 soldiers, 58 adults, and 15 children.

This incident was not the first one in the recent past, as Myanmar has seen a number of aircraft incidents in recent years. In 2012, two people were killed when an Air Bagan commercial aircraft made an emergency landing and went up in flames. In February 2016, an air force plane crashed in the capital city of Nay Pyi Taw, which left the five-member crew of the plane, dead. A few months after this incident three officers died when a military helicopter crashed in central Myanmar.