Myanmar plane for repatriation of soldiers crashes at Mizoram airport, 8 injured

AIZAWL: In a miraculous escape, all 14 passengers on board a small Myanmar military plane survived after the aircraft overshot the table-top Lengpui airport runway near here and crash-landed on Tuesday, officials said.

Of the 14 people on the plane, including the pilot, eight sustained minor injuries and were treated in a local health centre, they said.

The plane had come to take back 92 Myanmarese soldiers who crossed over to India last week, following gunfights with an ethnic insurgent group, they said.

Officials said the Myanmar air force Y-8 cargo plane overshot the tabletop runway of the Mizoram government-run airport around 10.20 am and crash-landed. The injured were taken to Lengpui primary health centre for treatment, they added.

The runway is closed for the time being and all flights have been cancelled for today, an official said.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered an investigation into the accident, a state government official said.

"All flights have been cancelled. Hoping all passengers would be able to either fly in or fly out as soon as possible, especially people with medical emergency," she said.

In all, 276 Myanmarese soldiers had entered Mizoram last week and 184 were sent back on Monday, officials said, adding the remaining 92 soldiers were to be repatriated in batches, they said.

The plane was supposed to take them to Sittwe in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

The Myanmarese soldiers entered Bandukbanga village in Mizoram's Lawngtlai district with their weapons on January 17 and approached the Assam Rifles.

They fled to Mizoram after their camp was overrun and captured by 'Arakan Army' fighters.

The Myanmarese soldiers were taken to the nearby Assam Rifles camp at Parva, and later majority of them were shifted to Lunglei, the official said.

They have been under the supervision of the Assam Rifles since then, the official said.

These soldiers were brought to Aizawl over Saturday and Sunday to be sent to Myanmar from Lengpui airport.

The group, headed by a colonel, has 36 officers and 240 lower-rank personnel, officials said.

With the 276 soldiers who entered last week, as many as 635 Myanmar soldiers have fled to Mizoram after their camps were overrun and captured by ethnic armed organisations and pro-democratic forces over the last few months, officials said.

In November, 104 Myanmar army personnel were sent to the border town of Moreh in Manipur from different places in Mizoram by Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters, and then repatriated.

Earlier this month, 255 soldiers were sent back via the Lengpui airport by Myanmar air force planes.

Mizoram shares a 510-km-long border with Myanmar.