Solar impulse narrowly avoids gas pipeline crash – exclusive

By our correspondent in Mandalay

Burma Tha Din Network can exclusively reveal that the Solar Impulse solar powered plane narrowly avoided crashing after entering Burmese airspace.

Pilot Bertrand Piccard struggled to control the plane after running into a smog cloud produced by one of Burma’s new coal fired power stations.

“Everything had been going smoothly, I was just cruising over the oil and gas platforms off the coast of Myanmar, but when I got over land I hit the smog cloud and briefly lost control of the plane,” said Bertrand Piccard. “The plane dipped and when we cleared the smog I saw we were heading towards a pipeline. I have to confess I had a moment of fear.”

Bertrand Piccard managed to regain control of the plane, and continued his journey, flying over the camps for 150,000 of Burma’s ethnic Muslim Rohingya minority, displaced from their homes in Rakhine State, which has huge offshore oil and gas reserves, by violence in 2012.

The rest of his journey to Mandalay went smoothly, and he was surprised to be personally greeted by President Thein Sein, who had recently confirmed that the military will continue to play a dominant role in Burmese politics.

“We are in Myanmar to spread the message that renewable energies are the root of prosperity, peace and progress,” tweeted Piccard when he landed. “We have a huge support from the authorities in Myanmar, who are aware of the importance of public relations.”