Colombo, Aug 15: A Sri Lankan military transport aircraft crashed today while on a test flight just south of the capital Colombo, officials here said.
The fate of the five-man crew of the Chinese-built Y-8 aircraft was not immediately known, nor was it clear if there were casualties on the ground.
Helicopters and ground troops rushed to the area to locate the wreckage, officials said.
Defence ministry spokesman Sanath Karunaratne said that the aircraft reported engine trouble and the control tower had advised it to return to base when it crashed in Kalutara district, 35 km south of Colombo.
The aircraft had taken off from Ratmalana military airport on the edge of the capital as part of a test flight before leaving for the northern city of Jaffna.
The crash was the third involving a Y-8 in Sri Lanka. The first crashed in 1992 while the other was shot down by Tamil Tiger rebels in November 1995.
Almost a year ago, on August 18, 2001, an airforce MIG-27 crashed near the country's international airport while its Ukrainian pilot performed aerobatics.
Bureau Report