"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," he said. 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. There were however, conflicting information about the number of people on board While General Myat Min Oo had earlier said the Chinese-made Y-8 aircraft was carrying 90 passengers – mostly families of military personnel – and 14 crew members when it went missing. The plane lost contact 29 minutes after take off while flying at about 6,000m over the Andaman Sea, about 70km west of the town of Dawei, the military said. The military launched a search soon after the plane went missing, mobilizing six navy ships and three military planes, said the army in a news release. A civil aviation official at Myeik airport, Kyaw Kyaw Htey, said: “We don’t know what exactly happened to this plane after the loss of contact,” adding that the weather at take-off had been “normal”, with good visibility. The plane, with a maximum capacity of 200, was bought in March 2016 and had 809 flying hours.
A military aircraft with 120 people onboard crashes into the Andaman Sea off the coast of Myanmar.