The Plane Is Still Missing

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

No sign of missing Myanmar passenger plane: Thai officials
Tue 25 Aug 98 - 04:19 GMT
BANGKOK, Aug 25 (AFP) - An Air Myanmar plane carrying an estimated 39 people
was
still missing Tuesday after it disappeared in a rugged part of eastern Myanmar
during a routine
domestic flight, Thai military officers said.
Thai border sources said the Fokker F-27 plane was believed to have crashed in
sparsely
populated Shan State near the border with Thailand as it tried to land at
Tachilek town on
Monday morning.
"We are trying to contact all area officials but so far there is no report of
progress," Deputy
commander of the Thai-Myanmar Border Coordination Office Colonel Prachot
Thienchatesuwan told AFP.
The passengers' identities were unknown but the Thai officer said he believed
most were
officials from Myanmar's military government.
"We understand it disappeared into the jungle," Prachot said.
Since early Monday afternoon the coordinating centre had been in touch with
all bordering
airport control towers for any sign of the missing aircraft but no traces had
been reported,
Prachot said.
Foreign diplomatic sources in Myanmar earlier said poor weather in Tachilek
meant the plane
had been unable to land and was ordered instead to land in the Myanmar town of
He Ho or the
Thai city of Chiang Mai.
Officials at both airports had been notified but no more had been heard from
the plane.
A ground search was also underway but Thai authorities could not confirm how
many soldiers
were involved or what area they were able to cover. No details of the Myanmar
government's
search efforts were immediately available.
Myanmar authorities contacted their Thai counterparts on Monday to ask for
help to search for
the missing aircraft.
The plane left Yangon early Monday morning for what was expected to be a
routine two-hour
flight to Tachilek.