Military Plane Carrying 116 People Goes Missing

A Myanmar military plane carrying 116 people on board, has gone missing, according to reports.

The plane left the southern coastal town of Myeik in the early afternoon and was bound for Myanmar’s largest city of Yangon, but it lost contact about 20 miles west of the town of Dawei and has been declared missing, the military said.

The aircraft disappeared from the radars on Wednesday, the army commander-in-chief said in a statement, adding that search and rescue were ongoing.

“Communication was lost suddenly at about 1:35 pm (07:05 GMT) when it reached about 20 miles (32km) west of Dawei town,” the statement said.

An airport source, who asked not to be named, said the plane was carrying 105 passengers and 11 crew.

Ships and planes have been scrambled to search for the plane, which was flying over the Andaman Sea when it went missing, the statement added.

The passengers were believed to mainly be family members of military men based in the coastal region.

‘We think it was a technical failure. Weather is fine there,’ the source told AFP, asking not to be named, adding there was no news of the plane so far.