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NEWS - Myanmar government reports c



Myanmar government reports crash of passenger plane in Laos

       Thu 27 Aug 98 - 11:09 GMT 

       BANGKOK, Aug 27 (AFP) - A Fokker F-27 plane has crashed into a
mountain in Laos, the country's military rulers said Thursday,
       amid confusion about the fate of a missing Air Myanmar plane with
39 people on board.

       "Government officials from Laos informed the Myanmar government
that a F-27 aircraft crashed in north of Laos on the Payakha
       mountain. The fate of the passengers are still to be confirmed,"
a statement from the junta received here said.

       It was not immediately clear if the statement referred to the
missing Air Myanmar Fokker F-27 which disappeared on Monday
       morning on a routine domestic flight.

       On Tuesday, Air Myanmar officials in Yangon told AFP the missing
plane had made an emergency landing in Laos and everyone on
       board was safe.

       An Air Myanmar spokesman and Thai military sources along the
Myanmar border said Thursday that as far as they knew, the aircraft
       had landed in Laos.

       They said the passengers were safe but could not explain where
they were or when they would be returning to Myanmar.

       But a spokesman at Myanmar's embassy in Bangkok said: "We have no
confirmation of anything yet. The plane is still missing and
       we are still searching."

       Government officials in either country could not be immediately
contacted.

       The plane went missing after being diverted from its course for
Tachilek in Myanmar's sparsely populated eastern Shan State due to
       bad weather. It apparently flew off-course after being ordered to
land instead in the Myanmar town of Heho or the northern Thai city of
       Chiang Mai.

       A ground and air search was launched involving Thai and Myanmar
soldiers after the plane failed to arrive.