A Fokker 100 operated by Burmese airline Air Bagan, with 65 pax on board has made an emergency landing near the Burmese town of Heho, coming down on a road about two miles from the airport. Initial reports suggest minor injuries.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...TION=HOME&SITE=AP&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Quoting kaitak (Thread starter): Initial reports suggest minor injuries.

and two people on the road deceased.

So it's a crash rather than a landing accident the ? Very lucky there were not more fatalities thankfully

The photos on this web pages shows how lucky it was that one one passenger and on motorcyclist on the ground were killed.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...-plane-crash-idUSBRE8BO01520121225

Sad to hear that it was a child who was killed. RIP.

Yikes! I am in Bagan Myanmar now and almost certainly saw this plane 3 days ago. I flew on an Myanma flight here and go back to Yangon in 2 days. My Myanma ATR was positively ancient, and there was lots of duct tape to be seen in the cabin. I never want to see duct tape on a plane, even if its just to hold the seats together. Myanma is supposed to be the one to avoid. The fokkers are also ancient. I am on Yangon air going back, their motto on my ticket is "you're safe with us" Its making me nervously laugh. Sorry to hear loss of life, but very glad to hear the almost all the pax are safe.

Myanmar/Burma need to invest in better air safety - tourism is seein an epic boom there, but poor transport infrastructure is already hampering that, and a poor air service does not help.

I'd like to see them invest in some newer aircraft for sure before I will make a visit anywhere outside of Yangoon for sure!

Quoting FCAFLYBOY (Reply 6): I'd like to see them invest in some newer aircraft for sure before I will make a visit anywhere outside of Yangoon for sure!

You don't have to fly (they also have trains and there is road transport).

Quoting FCAFLYBOY (Reply 6): Myanmar/Burma need to invest in better air safety - tourism is seein an epic boom there, but poor transport infrastructure is already hampering that, and a poor air service does not help.

The embargos didn't help and it will take time for these airlines to have the capital to fly better planes. However, they also need good pilots as it doesnt help if you've a new aircraft when the crew or facilities on the ground are not good.

Some more photos on this PPRUNE thread;

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/5...ar-city-burma-photos-included.html

Amazing to think so many survived, given the condition of the wreckage.

Aircraft was formerly N854US of US Air/Airways.

This certainly is sad news on Christmas day. Yes, those F100s are ancient and their mx work is barely up to the standards. Guess they're lucky it wasn't one of those F-27s Myanma Airways still has!

Airports in Burma except Yangon Intl are not equipped with anything at all and most of the time you are doing a visual landing.

And the Shan Plateau, where Heho airport is located, is notorious for fogging up suddenly and violent updrafts from the warm arid regions near by. Historically the area surrounding Heho and Techilelk are laden with wreckages. In 1998 I lost my family friend pilot that way, he was doing a visual into Techilelk in the middle of the day, but in a terrible weather on an F-27.

Quoting tmoney (Reply 9): Airports in Burma except Yangon Intl are not equipped with anything at all and most of the time you are doing a visual landing.

Mandalay is only 73 nm / 135 km NW, it is equipped with an ILS on one runway. Most of the larger airports in Myanmar (Burma) do at least have NDB approaches. The F100s generally are not approved to do RNAV approaches, so that reduces options. Myanmar (Burma) being geographically small would benefit more from a precision GPS approach network and better runway lights than installing more ILS approaches.

I saw this in the news earlier today.

When I went to Burma eons years ago in 1994 when they only had the country's official airline running most flights and then Air Mandalay had just started operations.

I mostly travelled on the old trains using the "upper class" except one time when I used Air Mandalay buying my ticket on site. I found Air Mandalay was really nice at the time with their brand new ATRs and their lovely stewardesses. It was said to be a joint venture company with Singapore.

Burma was not open to individual tourists - or very little - it was mostly all tour groups. Fewer flights and only those two airlines.

I suppose now with an influx of tourists coming in since after General Tan Shwe left power there have to be many airlines running uncertain equipment - not sure how they train/recruit their pilots either.

Sad to see this accident.
RIP victims.

    

Well...Air Bagan has (had) only 2 F100 and I flew them twice these last days. Last time was last Friday on HEH-RGN. The plane was arriving from MDL (so the flight that crashed) and was continuing to RGN. The plane looked In good shape when I flew it
I feel very lucky...
RIP   

I flew on this very route-plane-carrier combo on Christmas day three years ago. The planes were in pretty good shape on the inside. As others have said I really hope the government invests upfront. HEH is basically a shack and a landing strip. I'll dig up pictures and post them. RIP to the unlucky ones.

Cheers,
YOWza