UPDATES WITH FRESH BODY COUNT, EDITS THROUGHOUT
By Kyaw Ye Lynn
YANGON, Myanmar (AA) - A ship searching for a missing military plane has found 10 dead bodies off Myanmar's southern coast, officials said Thursday.
A military transport plane carrying 122 soldiers, their families, including 15 children, and crew went missing on Wednesday evening after losing contact during a flight from the southern town of Myeik in Tanintharyi region to Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon.
The Office of Commander-in-Chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said in a statement that bodies of a man, a woman and a child were found in the Andaman Sea on Thursday morning at around 8 a.m. local time (0130GMT).
The military later announced that fishing boats taking part in the search and rescue operation had found the remains of four women and three children.
Teams also found a tire believed to be from the missing airplane and two life jackets, the initial statement said. Four navy ships and three military aircraft were involved in the search mission, it added.
A military source confirmed on Wednesday evening that parts of the aircraft were found near Shin Maw beach in Myeik.
“So, the plane is believed to have crashed into sea,” an officer at Southern Command told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.
The Chinese-made Y8-200F cargo plane had been in service since March 2016, with 809 flying hours on its clock, according to the website of the army-run Myawaddy newspaper.