Myanmar: Investigators dismiss missing plane reports, end search

Myanmar has halted an investigation into unconfirmed reports of an aircraft crashing into the sea off the country's west coast on Friday, a senior official with the Civil Aviation Department (CAD) said. Staff from CAD's office on Manaung Island off the coast of northwestern Rakhine state had been sent to the area where the plane was reported to have gone missing, but could not find any evidence of any crash taking place, CAD official Tin Maung Ni said. The department had not received any reports of missing aircraft from airlines operating in Myanmar airspace. "So far as we have heard from the CAD staff on the Manaung Island things are normal there, so we're not doing anything," said Tin Maung Ni. The official had earlier told Reuters about "an unidentified aircraft" that had crashed into the sea off the west coast and that authorities were trying to locate it.<br/>