Airport staff stand on the tarmac by a damaged Merpati Nusantara Airlines MA-60 aircraft at Indonesia’s El Tari airport in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara province, on June 10, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — A domestic Myanma Airways flight swerved off the runway during landing on the same day that an Indonesian flight involving the same Chinese-made aircraft made a hard landing. Neither accident caused any deaths.

Monday’s accident in Burma was the third there since late December and comes as tourism booms in the country as it opens to the world after a half-century of military rule.

Burma state television showed the scene of the bad landing in Kawthaung in southeastern Burma. National police said on Facebook that the aircraft, a Chinese-made Xian MA60, was carrying four crew members and 60 passengers on a flight that originated in Rangoon, the country’s biggest city.

The report said the state-owned airline’s plane swerved off the runway and came to a stop in bushes about 200 feet to the west of the runway, with smoke coming from the left side propeller housing. It said the propellers on both wings were damaged. It said there were no injuries. Civil Aviation Department Assistant Director Nwe Ni Win Kyaw confirmed the accident but said she could not yet provide further details.

In Indonesia, aviation authorities said an MA60 operated by state-run Merpati Nusantara Airlines landed hard at the airport in the East Nusa Tenggara provincial capital of Kupang, slamming both engines into the runway. Airport authority head Imam Pramono said there were several people injured but no fatalities on the domestic flight carrying 50 people.

On May 16, another Myanma Airways MA60 shot past the end of the runway at Monghsat in northern Shan State when its brakes reportedly failed. A wing and a wheel were damaged, and two passengers suffered broken arms.

In December, a Fokker aircraft belonging to privately-owned Air Bagan crash-landed in a rice field in Burma’s Shan State, killing two and injuring 11.

Source: Irrawaddy.org

Topic continues here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/645891-myanma-airways-plane-skids-off-runway/