www.myawady.net.mm/AFP/Getty Images
An ageing Burmese plane carrying 65 passengers, including foreign tourists, crash-landed in eastern Shan state, leaving two people dead and 11 others injured, the airline and officials said.
A plane packed with foreign tourists made a fiery crash landing in Burma on Christmas Day, leaving two people dead and 11 injured.
The Air Bagan plane was en route from Rangoon to Heho airport in Shan Province when the engine gave out, forcing the pilot to land about two miles from the runway in a rice paddy. The plane might have hit overhead power cables, local media reported.
The plane was carrying 65 people, including 51 foreign tourists visiting Burma over the Christmas holiday. Six crew members were also on board.
Two Americans, two Britons and one South Korean man were among those taken to the hospital in nearby Taunggyi, according to Air Bagan officials. Two French tourists were also slightly injured.
Ma Nwe Lin Shein, a tour guide, died in the crash, Air Bagan said in a statement. A motorcyclist identified as U Pyar was killed as the aircraft skidded to the ground.
Kyodo/AP
Firefighting officials examine a passenger plane that crash-landed in a field near Heho airport in Shah State, Myanmar, on Dec. 25, 2012, killing two people.
The airplane’s black box has been recovered and was being taken to Singapore for examination.
Air Bagan released a statement in English on Wednesday saying it “deeply regret the deaths of two persons and tender its condolences to the bereaved families.”
Survivors described seeing smoke and flames coming from the front of the plane near the engines. As the aircraft neared ground, a flight attendant threw open a cabin door.
www.myawady.net.mm/AFP/Getty
The Myanmar ageing Fokker-100 plane in wreckage.
“Suddenly we just hit the ground and then it was all red and orange,” Swiss survivor Leandre Guillod told the Mirror.
“I was pretty much at the back … there was an opening above the wing, there was lots of fire so me and my girlfriend just jumped because we thought it was better to get out as soon as possible before it might explode, Guillod said.
Two pilots were among those injured.
Five Australian tourists also survived, with one man lightly injured and treated at the scene. A south Australian couple on holiday told the Advertiser newspaper the plane seemed to encounter problems with “no warning.”
Anna Bartsch and Stuart Benson of Adelaide were sitting at the back of the plane peering out the window when they began hearing “thuds.”
“There were no warnings. We were just looking out the window admiring the countryside a few minutes before the plane crashed,” Bartsch said.
“It was only once the plane had hit the ground (and) I saw flames coming from the outside of my window that I felt fear,” she told the Advertiser.
AP
A local looks at wrecked parts of Air Bagan passenger plane in Heho, Shan State, Burma.
Burma, which has undergone a huge democratic shift in the past two years, has also seen a boom in its tourism industry.
The country, also known as Myanmar, was under economic sanctions for years and as as a result, many airlines were unable to modernize their fleets. The country does not publish safety records, the Mirror reported.
WATCH: Survivors describe Burmese plane crash
vcavaliere@nydailynews.com
Plane crash in Myanmar leaves 2 dead http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1227396.1356527378!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/article-myanmar.jpg
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق