Search underway for reportedly crashed Malaysia Airlines plane

Search underway for reportedly crashed Malaysia Airlines plane Aircraft and rescue boats from Vietnam and other countries are scouring an area between Malaysia and Vietnam waters where a Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 239 people reportedly crashed on Saturday. An oil slick, 20km in area, found yesterday was seen having expanded by four times today.

>> Malaysia Airlines MH370 missing an hour after takeoff

>> Vietnamese boats to search for crashed Malaysian plane overnight

Two Tuoi Tre reporters are now at the scene to report on the missing plane search mission.

More maritime boats and helicopters from the Vietnamese side are ready to come there.

As of 7:00 a.m. (Vietnam time), there were 13 aircraft and 29 vessels in the above area, including six planes and six boats from Malaysia, two aircraft and 14 vessels from China, one aircraft and three boats from the Philippines, one C130 aircraft from Singapore, and three aircraft and six ships from Vietnam.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is sending its agents to Malaysia “to support the investigation into the disappearance of Flight MH370,” according to a CNN report.

Vietnam’s Colonel Tran Van Quang told Tuoi Tre on Saturday that two Vietnamese AN26 special aircraft had found two large oil slicks , about 20km long, and a column of smoke about 150 km from Tho Chu Island, off the southern province of Kien Giang, near the site where the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 plane went missing on March 8 morning (local time).

However, Quang was not clear that the oil patches were connected to the missing plane.

A Tuoi Tre reporter onboard an AN26 aircraft took a picture on Sunday that shows one slick has spread over a 80km sea surface, about 150km away from Vietnam’s Ca Mau southernmost province.

Senior lieutenant colonel Hoang Van Phong, the AN26′s pilot, confirmed to Tuoi Tre: “The oil spill has become four times bigger than yesterday, which indicated that a large number of oil had leaked into the sea. We will send a photo of it to both Vietnamese and Malaysian authorities for their assessment.”

Fishermen off Ca Mau have been informed of the possible plane crash and been asked to search and rescue foreign passengers whenever they see them.

Singapore said they will scour an area of 10,000 km2 around the oil slicks the Vietnamese side had found while Malaysia is planning to expand its searching area to 40,000 km2 in the area.

Search and rescue vessels from the Malaysian maritime enforcement agency on Sunday reached the area where the plane last made contact but they saw no sign of wreckage, Reuters quoted the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency as saying.

Contact with the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 aircraft was lost at around 1:30 am Malaysian time on Saturday (1730 GMT Friday), about an hour after its take-off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, AFP citing the Malaysian authorities as saying.

A Vietnamese Navy official said the same day that the aircraft might have crashed at a site about 153 nautical miles (275km) off Vietnam’s Tho Chu Island, located 85 nautical miles (153km) off the country’s southernmost tip Ca Mau.

The plane was carrying 239 people, including 227 passengers and 12 crew members, to Beijing where it was scheduled to land at 6:30 am local time (2230 GMT Friday).

Search underway for reportedly crashed Malaysia Airlines plane Related image(s)