On 7 June 2017, a

Shaanxi Y-8 The Shaanxi Y-8 or Yunshuji-8 () aircraft is a medium size medium range transport aircraft produced by Shaanxi Aircraft Corporation in China, based on the Soviet Antonov An-12. It has become one of China's most popular military and civilian tra ...

aircraft of the

Myanmar Air Force The Myanmar Air Force ( my, တပ်မတော် (လေ), ), known until 1989 as the Burmese Air Force, is the aerial branch of Myanmar's armed forces, the Tatmadaw. The primary mission of the Myanmar Air Force (MAF) since its inception ha ...

crashed on a flight from Myeik to

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

, killing all 122 people on board. Debris from the aircraft was found in the

Andaman Sea The Andaman Sea (historically also known as the Burma Sea) is a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean bounded by the coastlines of Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban and west side of the Malay Peninsula, and separated from ...

, 118 nautical miles (218 km) off

Dawei Dawei (, ; mnw, ဓဝဲါ, ; th, ทวาย, RTGS: ''Thawai'', ; formerly known as Tavoy) is a city in south-eastern Myanmar and is the capital of the Tanintharyi Region, formerly known as the Tenasserim Division, on the northern bank of ...

Myanmar Navy The Myanmar Navy ( my, တပ်မတော် (ရေ); ) is the naval warfare branch of the armed forces of Myanmar. With 24,000 personnel on duty, the navy operates more than 150 vessels. Prior to 1988, the navy was small, and its role in c ...

ships. It is the deadliest aviation accident in Myanmar's history.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a Shaanxi Y-8F-200 of the

, serial number 5820. It had been delivered in March 2016 and had flown for over 800 hours at the time of the crash.

Passengers and crew

Crew

The aircraft's captain was Lt-Col Nyein Chan and the co-pilots were Lt-Col Soe Thu Win and Maj Thant Zin Htay. The aircraft had 14 crew members.

Passengers

108 military staff members and their families, including 15 children, were on board when the plane lost communication with Dawei airbase. Six officers and 29 other military personnel were on board.

Disappearance

The aircraft had departed from Myeik for

at 13:06 local time (06:36 UTC). At 13:35, communication was lost with the aircraft when it was west of

(). The aircraft was flying at at the time. A search and rescue operation was launched in the

. An unidentified spokesman said that weather was not thought to be a factor in the aircraft's disappearance. No

mayday Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiza ...

call had been received from the aircraft.

Search

Nine

ships, and three military aircraft and helicopters were sent to assist in the search. On 7 June, debris from the aircraft was reported to have been found off Dawei by a Myanmar Navy ship. On 8 June, it was reported that 29 bodies had been found. The wreckage was scattered over a wide area, indicating that the aircraft might have disintegrated in flight at altitude. Storms in the area hindered the search. By 9 June, hopes of finding survivors were fading. It was later reported that there were no survivors. Instead, bodies and debris have been found scattered in the Andaman Sea, and some washed ashore. This was the deadliest aviation accident to occur in Myanmar, surpassing the crash of a Fokker F27 Friendship 500 in 1987, which killed 49 people. On 15 June, a fishing boat helping with the search found the tail of the aircraft off Myinkhwar Aww Bay. The

cockpit voice recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...

and

flight data recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...

were recovered on 18 June.

References

{{Portal bar, Aviation Airliner accidents and incidents caused by ice 2017 in Myanmar Aviation accidents and incidents in 2017 Aviation accidents and incidents in Myanmar June 2017 events in Asia Military history of Myanmar 2017 disasters in Myanmar