Wreckage of Missing Myanmar Military Plane Is Found
By JANE PERLEZ and WAI MOEJUNE 7, 2017
YANGON, Myanmar — Searchers found bodies and debris on Thursday from a military transport plane
that disappeared with 122 people on board shortly after taking off Wednesday afternoon from an air base in southern Myanmar, military officials said.
The navy and air force had mobilized ships and planes to search for the aircraft in the area near the base, about 350 miles
south of the country’s commercial capital, Yangon, the office of Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said in a statement.
The death toll from the crash is likely to be the worst of any air disaster in Myanmar, a country that has a spotty air safety record.
Last year, a Beechcraft trainer plane for the air force crashed near the capital, Naypyidaw, killing five people.
The Chinese state-run company that sold the aircraft to Myanmar last year, China National Aero-Technology Import and Export, said in a statement on Thursday
that it would provide "full support" in an investigation into the crash.
"That is the primary reason for the downing of many older aircraft." The local news media quoted Myanmar’s Defense Ministry as saying
that in 2015, the air force had bought 29 airplanes and seven helicopters in the preceding four years, coinciding with an overall increase in military spending in Southeast Asia.
