By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar 

Military officials said a plane that went missing with 120 people on board has crashed into the sea off Myanmar’s southern coast, based on wreckage found from the plane, said military sources.

Earlier, the plane -- carrying soldiers, their families and crew -- went missing after it lost contact during the flight from the southern town of Myeik in the Tanintharyi region to Yangon, the country’s largest city.

“We just found some parts of the aircraft near Shin Maw beach in Myeik Twosnhip,” said an officer at Military Southern Command, who asked not be named due to restrictions on talking to the media.

“So the plane is believed to have crashed into sea,” he told Anadolu Agency at around 8:00 p.m. local time (1330GMT).

The Chinese-made cargo plane had a total of 809 flying hours starting from March 2016, according to the website of army-run daily Myawaddy.

The Office of Commander-in-Chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said in a statement that four naval ships and two military planes have been carrying out search and rescue operations.​