Vietnamese boats to search for crashed Malaysian plane overnight

March 09, 2014 | 11:13

(0) user say

No signs of the Malaysia Airlines MH370 plane that crashed off Vietnam’s Tho Chu Island Saturday morning have been found and the Vietnamese boats that have joined the search for the plane will continue their work overnight.

Except for two alleged oil spills that have been found by an AN-26 plane of Vietnam this afternoon, no other signs of the crashed plane have been found so far, said the Search and Rescue Center under the Vietnam Flight Management Corporation.

The oil spills, one of which is about 20 km long, were discovered in Vietnam’s Flight Information Region (FIR) and about 150 km off southern Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Island.

Since this afternoon, Vietnam has used two AN-26 planes and seven boats to search the crash plane. However, at 6:00 pm the two planes returned to their base as it was getting dark, causing difficulties to their search.

Tonight, the SAR 272 rescue boat will arrive at the crash site to coordinate with the other available boats to conduct an overnight search, said Deputy Minister of Transport Pham Quy Tieu.

At 7:00 am Sunday, Vietnam will send two AN-26 planes and a Mi-171 helicopter to the scene to join the search, the Search and Rescue Center under the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam said.

Singapore has also said it will continue to send a plane to take part in the mission.

The plane crashed at 1:40 am local time (1840 GMT Friday) when it was carrying 239 people from 14 countries from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China.

According to the Vietnamese Naval High Command, the plane went down in the waters some 153 nautical miles off Tho Chu Island in Kien Giang Province.

No casualties have been reported up to now.

Tuoitrenews

What the stars mean:

★ Poor ★ ★ Promising ★★★ Good ★★★★ Very good ★★★★★ Exceptional