Missing Myanmar aircraft lands safe

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Missing Myanmar aircraft lands safely in Laos 
06:31 a.m. Aug 25, 1998 Eastern 

BANGKOK, Aug 25 (Reuters) - A Myanmar Airways Fokker F-27 turboprop
aircraft reported missing on Monday with 39 passengers on board has landed
safely in Laos, an official of Myanmar Airways said on Tuesday. 

``The passengers and plane are OK. They landed at a Lao airport -- that's
what we can say,'' said the official, contacted in Yangon, the Myanmar
capital, by telephone from Bangkok. 

``The aircraft made a fine landing at an old airfield in Laos, but I cannot
remember the name of the town,'' he said. ``I think the plane can fly back
to Yangon tomorrow.'' 

Flight UB635 had been on a regular two-hour domestic flight from Yangon to
the eastern border town of Tachilek on Monday but had been unable to land
there due to bad weather, Myanmar's Ministry of Information said on Monday.


It had then flown on to Heho in southeast Myanmar but had lost contact with
ground control. 

The airline official said all those aboard were Myanmar citizens. An
official of Myanmar Airways in Bangkok said earlier that most of the
passengers were Myanmar military personnel. 

In January, at least seven people were killed when a Myanmar Airways F-27
carrying about 40 people on a domestic flight crashed near Thandwe, about
320 km (200 miles) northwest of Yangon.