Chinese-Made Y-8 Aircraft Went Down In The Andaman Sea

A Myanmar military plane went down Wednesday off the coast of Myanmar with 120 people, including 15 children, on board.

The Associated Press reports that the four-engine turboprop had departed from Myeik en route to Yangon on flight path that took the airplane over the Andaman Sea. Contact with the aircraft was lost at about 1:35 p.m. local time when it was southwest of the city of Dawei, according to officials.

Thursday afternoon, military officials reported that 29 bodies had been recovered from the water. In many cases, the bodies were not recovered whole, according to the report. Local fishermen joined Myanmar naval vessels and aircraft to assist in the recovery of those fatally injured. A wheel of the aircraft was also reportedly recovered.

According to the Facebook page of military Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, which the AP says is the primary source of official information about the accident, indicated that the aircraft was carrying 2.4 tons of cargo along with the passengers. It is reportedly not unusual for civilian family members of military personnel to travel on such flights.

The plane was acquired in March of last year, and had accumulated 809 flying hours since its delivery. The pilot and copilot both had in excess of 3,100 hours of flight time logged, according to the report.

(Image uploaded to Wikipedia by M Radzi Desa and used under GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 Not accident airplane)

FMI: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaanxi_Y-8