CONFLICTING STORIES and FACTS again

[TheTruth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

STORY 1:
Myanmar passenger plane found and safe in Laos: officials

       Tue 25 Aug 98 - 11:44 GMT 

       BANGKOK, Aug 25 (AFP) - An Air Myanmar plane carrying an
estimated 39 people has been found safe and sound on a small
       airfield in Laos after going missing for almost 36 hours, Thai
and Myanmar officials said.

       Air Myanmar officials in Yangon told AFP the Fokker F-27 aircraft
made an emergency landing in Laos on Monday after being
       diverted from its destination at Tachilek in Myanmar's sparsely
populated eastern Shan State due to bad weather.

       They said all 39 Myanmar nationals on board were safe.

       The aircraft went missing early Monday when it was diverted away
from Tachilek and ordered instead to land in the Myanmar town of
       Heho or the Thai city of Chiang Mai.

       Officials at both airports had been notified but no more had been
heard from the plane.

       A ground and air search was launched involving Thai and Myanmar
soldiers.

       Thai border sources earlier said the plane was believed to have
crashed in Shan State near the border with Thailand as it tried to
       land at Tachilek at the end of a routine domestic flight from
Yangon.
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STORY 2:
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.