nboat Thursday recovered the bodies of three of 55 people who were on a commercial plane that disappeared over northern Sri Lanka two days ago, military officials said.
The Ukrainian-built plane left Palali airport in Jaffna on Tuesday and lost radio contact within three minutes. There was no distress signal, the officials said.
Small parts of the aircraft was also recovered from the sea, officials said. No other details were available. The bodies recovered will be brought to the capital of Colombo for identification Friday.
Officials couldn’t say whether the plane had crashed or was downed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels. The movement has fought a separatist war in northern Sri Lanka since 1983.
Lionair, which owns the missing plane, is one of two private companies providing civilian air service between Colombo and Jaffna. The airlines’ planes follow a flight path that is over the sea, beyond areas held by rebels.
The government Thursday ordered both airlines to suspend flights.