NEWS- Myanmar passenger plane found

[TheTruth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

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.