Military leading role of the Slorc

[lurie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Military leading role of the Slorc led to a plan cruch

Eight killed in Tavoy-Mergui plane crash
----------------------------------------

Tavoy - Eight people were killed and 18 seriously injured when a
state-owned Fokker-27 propeller plane flying for a domestic
airway crashed on July 24, 1996 in the southern Burmese town of
Mergui in the Tenessarim Division.

The Myanmar Airways plane carrying 49 people from the southern
town of Tavoy crashed as it came in for a landing at the airport
in Mergui, about 900 km southeast of Rangoon, sources said.

The flight, which was routinely scheduled to fly from Tavoy to
Mergui, had been cancelled because of  bad weather and changed
to fly to Rangoon instead of Mergui. However, the SLORC's Colonel
Thiha Thura Sit Maung who had just arrived at Tavoy from Maung Ma
Gan sea beach, ordered  the flight to land in Mergui as scheduled
before, despite the bad weather. 

When it was about to land at the Mergui airport, Col Sit Maung
was told by the pilot that the plane could not land at Mergui
airport as the bad weather made landing way unclear, but the
plane was forced to land at Mergui airport by Col Sit Maung's
order. Because of the bad visibility on the run way, the flight
mislanded at new Mergui airport which was  under construction and
hit rocks.

The crash killed eight people  and many people were injured. The
wife of Col Sit Maung even got a fracture of the nostril bone and
her lips cut. Among the death, four were Tavoy residents. When
the bodies arrived Tavoy, the family members cried, accusing Sit
Maung of committing a crime by exploiting his authority. Some
people got angry and broke the porthole of the plane while
cursing, saying "stupid Sit Maung".             


Voice of the Peacock
ABSDF