Thai Army Chief found the crashed p

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

Myanmar plane crash found, Thai army chief
Fri 28 Aug 98 - 09:38 GMT
BANGKOK, Aug 28 (AFP) - The wreckage of a lost passenger plane believed to
have
crashed in poor visibility has been found in eastern Myanmar's Shan state,
Thai army chief
General Chettha Thanajaro said Friday.
"The Myanmar authorities are already asking us to help them retrieve the
wreckage, and I have
assigned the Third Army Region to coordinate with them," he added.
He made no mention of the 39 passengers believed to have been on board the Air
Myanmar
plane which went missing Monday, but a senior Thai officer on the border said
all had perished.
The border officer said the aircraft had crashed near Soe Kong village, two
kilometers (1.2
miles) east of Tachilek airport in sparsely populated eastern Myanmar near the
border with
Thailand.
Myanmar officials in Yangon and at the embassy in Bangkok could not confirm
the report.
Myanmar authorities earlier Friday said teams searching for the Fokker F-27
plane believed to
have crashed in the infamous "Golden Triangle" opium growing region had
spotted wreckage.
"This morning reports mention that a crash site has been spotted from the air
inside Myanmar
territory," a junta spokesman said in a statement sent to AFP in Bangkok.
"Search teams have been sent in to make confirmations. The adverse weather
conditions have
slowed down the process," the statement added.
The Thai report Friday adds a new twist to the mystery of the Air Myanmar
flight's
whereabouts, after junta officials Thursday reported the plane had crashed
into a mountainside
across the Lao border.
But on Tuesday, Air Myanmar officials said the missing plane had made an
emergency landing
in Laos and everyone on board was safe.
The plane 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.