Myanmar’s Yangon Intl Airport Reopens
By The Irrawaddy 6 September 2019
YANGON—Myanmar’s Yangon International Airport reopened early Friday morning after shutting down for about 19 hours Thursday when a Y-8 military plane skidded off the runway.
Myanmar’s department of civil aviation said on Friday that normalcy had resumed at the airport by about 6 a.m. on Sept. 6.
The accident had caused the cancellation of several domestic and international flights.
After the plane skidded off the runway at about 10:30 a.m. Thursday, the department first announced that operations would be suspended until 2 p.m. that day, but efforts to remove the aircraft were unsuccessful into the afternoon.
The aircraft was successfully removed at 4:15 a.m. Friday.
Twelve delayed domestic flights were allowed to land on Thursday after 5 p.m., but 37 outbound and inbound flights from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, India, Bangladesh, South Korea and Qatar were cancelled, according to Deputy Director General U Ye Htut Aung of the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
Four inbound domestic flights from Heho, Mandalay and Kaw Thaung airports were rerouted to Naypyitaw airports, where more than 120 passengers were stranded, the Myanmar Aviation Development Association said on Thursday. Fifteens additional flights had their landings delayed.
The plane skidded from the runway and stopped in nearby grass due to a left-side engine failure. It had been taking off as part of a training at the time.
In 2017, a Y-8 military aircraft crashed into the Andaman Sea, killing 122 people. Fourteen crew members and 108 military staff traveling with their families were on board when the plane crashed, on its way from the Tanintharyi Region port town of Myeik to Yangon.
The Y-8 transport aircraft is produced by Shaanxi Aircraft Corporation in China and based on the Soviet Antonov An-12.
Aung Thiha contributed to this report.
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