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Stringer / Reuters
Soldiers stand at the crash site of a Air Bagan plane in Myanmar, Tuesday.
YANGON, Myanmar – A passenger jet missed an airport runway in heavy fog and landed in a rice paddy, killing two people on the ground and injuring 10, state television in Myanmar said Tuesday.
The pilot of the Air Bagan plane touched down beyond Heho airport in Shan state, killing an 11-year-old passenger and a motorcyclist on the ground, MRTV said.
Four foreigners and the pilot were among the injured. The plane was carrying 63 passengers, 51 of whom were foreigners. MRTV said.
Air Bagan is one of five airlines operating domestic routes in Myanmar.
Stringer / Reuters
People gather at the crash site of a Air Bagan plane in Myanmar, Tuesday.
Owned by Tay Za, a local tycoon blacklisted by the United States for his alleged links to former military regime, Air Bagan was the country's first privately run carrier when it was established in 2004.
Agence France Press (AFP) reported that the aircraft - one of two Fokker-100s in the Air Bagan fleet - was forced to make an emergency landing two miles from Heho airport, which is the gateway to the popular tourist destination of Inle Lake.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
My family loves to fly, I do not. Valium and Vodka, the great equalizer.
stonepipe2,
I share your sentiments, and I am retired from the Air Force and used to fly missions as a crew member. So I'm only too aware of all the things that can go wrong. I haven't flown in a long time now, but they can't keep too great a supply of liquor on the plane when I do.
Forget flying. If man were meant to fly he'd have been born with wings. I maintain a monogamous relationship with terra firma!
My condolences to those who may have lost a loved one on the flight.
When your time is up, it is up, if you don't fly you might get hit by a car or something else, I have had my fair share of scares in the air, I have found the more often I fly, the more comfortable I am. Obviously it was only 2 peoples time. If I was on this flight it may stop me from flying. I have been in a massive air pocket(turbulence) my guess is we fell about 2000 feet, you would be amazed at how far a 707's wings will flex. By far the worst was on Valuejet 2 days after the crash, but that was the pilots fault. The only thing that calmed me was the FAA inspector sitting in the jump seat, I could see his face. All his turn points were wrong, he was over correcting the flight path every 5-15 minutes, lifted the nose wheel to early without enough speed, banked north to early, didn't throttle up for the bank, dropped the nose and had to hammer the throttle not to stall. We came in to high and too fast, he had to hammer the air brakes and wheel brakes to make the exit from the runway. I have never seen passenger's so relieved, there was a collective sigh when we turned off the runway and applause, If the pilot though t the applause was for him he is crazy, people were just that happy to get off the plane. I was doing this flight 3-5 times a year and knew all the flight paths etc by landmarks.
Man were the people on this Air Bagan flight lucky, it was just not their time.
There. Airports should be surrounded with rice fields.
Mickey, the next time you see someone looking like he is imitating Gene Kelly's Singing in the Rain song and mumbling incoherently please introduce yourself and I will buy you a drink. Have a great day!
"Have a great day!"
Same to you, and have a merry Christmas, too, stonepipe2!
Why is that soldier's right hand on his left arm...?
He took Sominex last night and woke up "feeling himself" again.
I would ask, "Why does the soldier have his hand on his butt? Is he feeling himself up as jerryb suggests?"
As sad as this tragedy is, I was wondering exactly the same thing. I ended up putting my hand in that position, and decided his thumb is just tucked under. Still weird.
Many condolences to those injured and deceased.
It's because it is his left hand, not his right.
There is always someone standing around with his thumb up his ass.
If the "fog" was truly hugging the ground, the pilot should have been denied pemission to land. Or, he/she/it should have had enough sense to ask for an alternative airport. If the plane was low on fuel, maybe there was no other choice, in which case the pilot did a commendable job of salvaging a situation that could have been much worse. The "Fly-By-Night" airline will have to evaluate the event and take appropriate action.
The Fokker 100 is the momma of all Fokkers, i.e., the "mother Fokker".
It's amazing, given the pieces the plane ended up in, that only two people were killed. I gave up flying when I retired and do not plan to fly again. If anyone wants to see me they can come here. I'm not a gambler.
Guess the moral is "Don't ride a bicycle in a rice paddy"!
Wow, stunningly few people killed, I don't like flying, but I will ( see large amounts of vodka as mentioned above). But I would never fly anywhere (or drive, for that matter) outside the U.S., Western or Central Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and maybe Dubhai(sp?) or other gulf states that give a damn about safety. Very glad so few casualties ensued! My apologies to all Canadians! While I certainly don't consider you part of the U.S. I always assume your standards of safety, cleanliness etc. are at least the equivalent of any other in the world.
Domestic carriers are not immune from safety lapses. I recall an Air Alaska plane that crashed, killing all aboard when a vital item in the tail was not greased and it separated from the rest of the assembly.
Can U.S. or other foreign airlines invest and help/teach them for the safety and other maintenance issues of flying safe, not just international but also domestic?
Mynamar is open for the foreign investments which means it may involve many assessments, which may drive many experts to go there.