Yangon – Myanmar’s army said Thursday it had found wreckage and bodies from a military transport flight that crashed in the Andaman Sea a day earlier with 122 people on board.
Search teams found the bodies of two adults and one child, as well as lifejackets, baggage and parts of the aircraft, according to a post on army chief Min Aung Hlaing’s official Facebook page.
The debris was recovered just after 8am (0200 GMT) around 35 kilometres southwest of Launglon township, Tanintharyi region.
The Chinese made Shaanxi-Y8 vanished from radar screens at around 1.35pm on Wednesday. Ships, helicopters and planes were deployed to search for the aircraft but the seas were rough at the time of the crash, according to the statement.
On board were dozens of soldiers and their families, including 15 children and a flight crew of 14.
In its latest statement, the Myanmar army named the pilot as Lt-Col Nyein Chan, who had 3,162 flying hours. He was accompanied by two co-pilots, Lt-Col Soe Thu Win and Maj Thant Zin Htay.
The plane was purchased in March 2016 and had 809 flying hours.
Myanmar has a notoriously poor aviation safety record.
The last crash involving a military aircraft was in February 2016. Five people were killed when a plane came down outside Naypyitaw, the political capital.
In 2012, a commercial Air Bagan flight crashed and caught fire while landing at Heho airport, southern Shan state, on Christmas Day. Two died.
-dpa
