A fishing boat on Thursday found the tail of a Myanmar military plane that crashed last week with 122 people on board, after having snagged the piece of debris in its net.
Army chief Min Aung Hlaing said the boat had been helping with the search when they discovered the plane’s tail off Myin Khwar Aww bay, not far from the southern town of Dawei.
Navy divers later confirmed the part was “the tail of Y-8 5820 plane with its logo,” Min Aung Hlaing’s office added in a statement.
The search for the aircraft commenced last week after the plane plunged into the sea during a routine flight from Myeik to Yangon. Most passengers were the wives and children of servicemen.
So far 90 bodies have been pulled from the Andaman Sea after the military sent boats and planes to scour the waters, aided by local vessels.
There has been no official explanation for the cause of the crash — one of several deadly incidents involving Myanmar military aircraft in recent years.
Min Aung Hlaing has suggested it may have been caused by bad weather, but there were no reports of major storms along the plane’s flight path when it disappeared.
The Chinese-made Shaanxi Y-8 four-engine turboprop aircraft was less than two years old and had only flown some 800 hours, according to Myanmar’s military.
Several countries have offered to help with the search, but state media reported on Sunday that they have all been turned down.
Hundreds of distraught relatives have flocked to Dawei for mass funerals, with desperate families waiting for news of those still unaccounted for, as hopes fade of finding survivors.
All but one of the bodies pulled from the waters had been cremated as of Thursday afternoon, according to the army.
Reader Interactions