Aizawl, Jan 24 (PTI) A day after a Myanmarese military plane crash landed in Mizoram’s lone Lengpui airport near Aizawl, 92 soldiers of the neighbouring country were sent back on Wednesday, the Assam Rifles said.
The Myanmar Air Force’s Y-8 cargo plane overshot the tabletop runway of the airport and crash-landed into a bush following a snag in the engine, officials said.
The aircraft with 14 people on board had come to take back 92 Myanmarese soldiers who crossed over to India last week, following gunfights with an ethnic insurgent group.
Those 14 crew members, who miraculously escaped death, were airlifted during the day by another Myanmarese aircraft from Lengpui to Sittwe port town in the neighbouring country’s Rakhine state, the official said.
With the latest evacuation, a total of 635 Myanmarese army personnel have been repatriated to their country from Mizoram since November last year.
They crossed the international and entered Mizoram after their camps were overrun by the rebel group.
Meanwhile, officials said that the accident occurred as one of the two engines of the plane malfunctioned.
The pilot was experienced and he had landed at Lengpui airport earlier also, they said.
Mizoram shares a 510-km-long border with Myanmar. PTI COR NN
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