AP-No One Hurt in Myanmar Plane Mis

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Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: AP-No One Hurt in Myanmar Plane Mishap

Wednesday October 27 7:32 AM ET
No One Hurt in Myanmar Plane Mishap

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - An Indian Airlines plane trying to land in high wind
and heavy rains skidded off a runway and into deep mud, but all 92 people
aboard escaped injury, officials said Wednesday.

The accident occurred late Tuesday as the Airbus 320, en route from Calcutta
to Yangon, landed with a thud at Yangon's international airport.

Passengers complained of shoddy treatment after they evacuated the plane by
emergency chutes into mud and stormy weather.

P.K. Gupta, 53, from Calcutta, said they were kept waiting at the airport
for more than three hours without hospitality or medical checks as
authorities debated whether to let transit passengers through immigration.

``We were shivering, and they didn't even give us a cup of tea,'' Gupta
said.

A Calcutta man who gave his name as Dutta, 50, said the plane swerved before
landing heavily. The plane's lights went out as it came to a halt.

``There was shouting but no panic,'' said the man, a bank employee traveling
to Singapore with his wife and two daughters. ``I went through the emergency
chute and landed knee deep in mud. It was raining very hard, and it was very
windy.''

A Yangon airport official, who requested anonymity, said the cause of the
accident appeared to be bad weather. The plane's undercarriage was damaged
and it could not take off again.

Yangon airport was closed to major international flights early Wednesday,
but domestic services and international services using smaller airplanes
were still operating, the official said.

A spokesman for Indian Airlines in New Delhi, who also declined to be named,
confirmed that all 83 passengers and nine crew were unhurt. Over 40 of the
passengers bound from Calcutta to Singapore would depart Yangon on the first
available flight, the spokesman said.

It was not clear when the transit passengers - those who were flying through
Yangon en route to other destinations - would be able to fly out. They were
eventually booked into an airport hotel.

Sean Lee, a Singapore-based spokesman for plane manufacturer Airbus
Industrie, said the company was sending a team from its headquarters in
Toulouse, France, to assess the damage.