AIZAWL, 23 Jan: A Myanmar military plane crashed at the Lengpui airport on the outskirts of Mizoram headquarters Aizawl on Tuesday, officials said.
\nThe small plane had arrived here to take back the Myanmarese soldiers who had crossed over to India last week, following gunfights with an ethnic insurgent group, they said.
\nThere were 14 people on the plane and eight of them were injured in the accident, which occurred at around 10:20 am, officials said.
\nWhile landing, it overshot the tabletop runway of the Mizoram government-run airport and crashed. The impact of the accident was such that the plane split into two, they said.
\nThe injured persons were taken to the Lengpui primary health centre for treatment, they added.
\nThe civil aviation directorate general has ordered an investigation into the crash, a state government official said.
\n“All incoming flights have been diverted. When flight services, incoming and outgoing, will resume is yet to be known. Hoping all passengers would be able to either fly in or fly out as soon as possible, especially people with medical emergency,” she said.
\nA total of 276 Myanmarese soldiers had entered Mizoram last week, and of them, 184 were sent back on Monday, officials said.
\nThe remaining 92 soldiers were to be repatriated on Tuesday, they said.
\nThe plane was supposed to take them to Sittwe in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
\nThe 276 Myanmarese soldiers had entered Bandukbanga village, located at the India-Myanmar-Bangladesh trijunction, in southernmost Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district with arms and ammunition on 17 January and approached the Assam Rifles. They had fled to Mizoram after their camp was overrun and captured by Arakan Army fighters.
\nThe Myanmarese soldiers were taken to the nearby Assam Rifles camp in Parva, and later the majority of them were shifted to Lunglei, the official said.
\nThey have been under the supervision of the Assam Rifles since then, the official said.
\nThese 276 soldiers were brought to Aizawl over Saturday and Sunday for their transport to Myanmar from the Lengpui airport.
\nThe group, headed by a colonel, has 36 officers and 240 lower-rank personnel, officials said.
\nWith 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.
\nIn November, 104 Myanmar Army personnel were sent to the border town of Moreh in Manipur from different places in Mizoram by Indian Air Force helicopters, and then repatriated. Earlier this month, 255 soldiers were sent back via the Lengpui airport by Myanmar Air Force planes.
\nMizoram shares a 510-km-long border with Myanmar. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AIZAWL, 23 Jan: A Myanmar military plane crashed at the Lengpui airport on the outskirts of Mizoram headquarters Aizawl on Tuesday, officials said. The small plane had arrived here to take back the Myanmarese soldiers who had crossed over to India last week, following gunfights with an ethnic insurgent group, they said. There were 14 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-233160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-north-east"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}