Two dead, 11 hurt in Myanmar plane crash landing

[flee 5]

YANGON - A Myanmar plane carrying 65 passengers including foreign tourists crash-landed in eastern Shan state on Tuesday, leaving two people dead and 11 others injured, the airline and officials said.

 

Air Bagan said the aircraft, an ageing Fokker-100, was forced to make an emergency landing two miles (three kilometres) from Heho airport, which is the gateway to the popular tourist destination of Inle Lake.

 

"One passenger who was missing was found dead inside the plane. We are still trying to identify who the dead passenger is," the carrier announced in a statement posted on its Facebook page.

 

The victim was an 11-year-old child, according to the information ministry, which added that four foreigners were among those hurt in the accident.

 

Another person was killed when the plane struck a motorbike on a road near the airport, it said.

 

The exact circumstances of the incident were not immediately clear, but a government official said a fire was reported in one of the engines as it approached Heho airport at around 9 am (0230 GMT).

 

"Because of the emergency landing near the airport, the plane broke up in the middle," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that passengers were evacuated.

 

A local tour guide waiting at the airport for passengers on the Air Bagan flight to arrive said the fire had "burnt almost the whole plane".

 

Air Bagan spokesman Ye Min Oo said the two pilots among the injured were taken to hospital, although their condition was not immediately known.

 

"The cause of the accident is not clear yet. Only the pilots will know the cause, but we can't contact them yet as they have been sent to hospital," he said.

 

Air Bagan is one of several domestic carriers seeking to profit from a tourist boom in Myanmar as it emerges from decades of military rule. It is owned by Tay Za, a tycoon known for his close links to the former junta.

 

The airline operates two Fokker 100 jets, which are no longer manufactured.

 

Long isolated from the world under decades of junta rule, the Southeast Asian nation has seen an influx of tourists and business travellers in recent months following a raft of political reforms.

 

The surge in demand for air travel has stretched Myanmar's aviation infrastructure, in particular in remote airports.

 

Yangon International Airport, the country's main terminal, is set to exceed its limit of 2.7 million passengers this year and the Department of Civil Aviation warned in July it needs urgent upgrading. - AFP

 

Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/12/25/reutersworld/1212251243-myanmar-passenger-plane-in-emergency-la&sec=reutersworld

[Lock SH 0]

More pictures here :

 

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/503661-air-bagan-fokker-f100-crash-myanmar-city-burma-photos-included.html

 

 

 

............Authorities gave a different and more dramatic account, saying the pilot mistook the road for a runway due to bad weather.

 

"While descending, the plane mistakenly landed ... due to fog beside the runway," state television reported. It said the aircraft made a hard landing on a road and then came to a stop in a nearby rice paddy field........

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/passenger-jet-makes-emergency-landing/story-e6frfkui-1226543310485#ixzz2G3uApj00

 

 

 

 

Edited December 25, 2012 by Lock SH

[Sri Ramani K. 0]

Registration confirmed to be XY-AGC.

[Naim 6]

During our trip to Myanmar in March 2011, our plane from Mandalay to Yangon made a quick 10-min stop at Heho just to drop and pick up several travelers. This is how the airport looked like. See the rice fields all around it.



Btw, we flew AsianWings Airways, no problem.

===

[JuliusWong 0]

History of the aircraft:

Delivery date Airline Registration
22/02/1991 Air Europe PH-CFE
15/10/1993 Air Littoral F-GJAO
30/11/1995 Fokker PH-CFE
13/05/1996 British Midland Airways PH-CFE
03/07/1998 British Midland Airways G-BXWE
01/02/2001 bmi G-BXWE
01/08/2005 Air Bagan XY-AGC
01/08/2008 Myanmar Airways Int XY-AGC
21/05/2009 Air Bagan XY-AGC

 

More details of the accident at: http://avherald.com/h?article=45b1221e&opt=0

Edited December 25, 2012 by JuliusWong

[Amirul Mazlan 0]

Someone in my FB wrote, the co-pilot used to do his flying training in Ipoh. I know that guy.

[Cire 0]

Its a miracle that there are survivals in this crash, and perhaps due to the terrain being pretty flat, the damage to the plane was not too excessive thus enabling escape before the fire engulfed the whole plane. Sorry for the those killed, and a very unfortunate one for the motorcyclist on the ground.