Myanmar’s navy on Thursday found bodies and plane debris in the Andaman Sea from an aircraft that was carrying more than 120 passengers, the latest in a grim history of military aviation disasters around the globe.
Here is a recap of major military aircraft accidents from the past three decades.
June 7, MYANMAR: A Chinese-built Shaanxi Y8 carrying dozens of soldiers and more than 70 relatives of servicemen, including 15 children, goes missing over the Andaman Sea. Pieces of the plane and three dead bodies are found off Myanmar’s southwest coast the following morning.
The country has seen a string of smaller aircraft accidents in recent years, including an air force plane crash that killed five in 2016.
December 25, RUSSIA: A Tupolev Tu-154 carrying 92 people, including more than 60 members of the Red Army Choir, crashes after taking off from the southern resort city of Sochi, where it had refuelled on its way to Syria.
June 30, INDONESIA: 142 people die when a Hercules C-130 transport plane crashes into the city of Medan after taking off from a nearby airbase.
The dead were 122 people on the plane and 20 on the ground. The pilot asked to turn back just after take-off and the air force says the plane might have suffered engine trouble.
April 10, RUSSIA: A Tu-154 carrying 96 people, including Polish president Lech Kaczynski and top political and military personalities crashes while trying to land near the western Russian city of Smolensk, killing all on board.
The presidential plane crashed in thick fog while taking a delegation to a memorial service for a World War II massacre.
May 20, INDONESIA: More than 100 people, soldiers and their families, die in the crash of a C-130 in a rice paddy near the East Java city of Magetan.
December 6, IRAN: A Lockheed C-130 crashes into a residential neighbourhood in Tehran, killing 108 people, including 68 reporters and photographers.
Fourteen of those who died were on the ground when the plane came down owing to a technical problem.
May 8, DRCongo: About 200 passengers are killed after the rear door of an Ilyushin-76 plane transporting police officers from Kinshasa to Lubumbashi bursts open in mid-flight over the Democratic Republic of Congo.
October 5, INDONESIA: A C-130 crashes into a building in Jakarta shortly after take-off, killing 136 people.
Most of the victims are airforce personnel who had participated in the nation’s annual armed forces parade.
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