An extraordinary story has just emerged from Italy in relation to missing flight MH 370.
Luigi Maraldi, 37, from Cesena, was named as one of the passengers on board the plane.
However, reports in Italy have confirmed that he was NOT on board and that he had reported his passport stolen last August.
Mr Maraldi's parents have spoken to him in Thailand and he is 'fine', news agency ANSA reports.
The revelation suggests that one of the 227 passengers on board the missing flight was using a stolen passport.
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Most prob gone case ale... So sad
There has been speculations of terrorist attacks onboard, after reports of stolen passports.
A SECOND passenger on the flight was using a stolen passport, it has emerged.
Austrian Christan Kozel, aged 30, has been confirmed as safe and well by authorities.
He said his passport was stolen when he visited Thailand two years ago, Austrian newspaper De Standard reports.
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KUALA LUMPUR (REUTERS/AFP) - The Malaysia Airlines plane that went missing near the South China Sea early Saturday morning is presumed to have crashed, even as countries in the region joined in the search operation.
There were no reports of bad weather and no sign why the Boeing 777-200ER, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent engines, would have vanished from radar screens about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing.
A large number of planes and ships from several countries were scouring the area where the aircraft last made contact, about halfway between Malaysia and the southern tip of Vietnam.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said 15 air force aircraft, six navy ships and three coast guard vessels had been pressed into service by Malaysia.
Vietnam dispatched two navy boats from Phu Quoc island and sent two jets and one helicopter from Ho Chi Minh City to search for the missing airliner. It was readying a further seven planes and nine boats to join the search effort.
China and the Philippines have also sent ships to the region to help. The United States, the Philippines, and Singapore dispatched military planes to help. The Republic of Singapore Air Force sent a C130 Hercules aircraft.
China has also put other ships and aircraft on stand-by, said its transport minister.
On Saturday night, Vietnamese authorities said it had spotted two large oil slicks about 15km to 20km long in the sea and was sending boats to the area.
Earlier in the day, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said that no sign has been found of flight MH370, which left KL at 12.41am with 227 passengers and 12 crew
The passengers were from 14 countries. Among them were 153 from China including 24 painters who had visited Malaysia to attend an art exhibition.
There were also 38 passengers from Malaysia and the others were from countries including Indonesia, Australia, France, New Zealand, Ukraine, Canada, India, Taiwan and the United States.
There were no Singaporean passengers although one of the passengers, Mr Tony Tan Wei Chew, 19, a Malaysian, had studied at St Andrew's Junior College here.
Datuk Seri Najib said he had spoken to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and expressed condolences over the affected Chinese passengers. Mr Li had urged Malaysia to act quickly and vigorously in their rescue efforts.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for emergency measures to find the plane, which had been due to arrive in Beijing at 6.30am.
He ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chinese embassies and consulates to strengthen contact with relevant countries and pay close attention to the search and rescue work.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong tweeted earlier that he had spoken to Datuk Seri Najib to express his sympathies over the missing plane and offer help with the search operations.
The airlines said the last radar contact was 2.40am local time, about 120 nautical miles east of Kota Bahru, near the South China Sea, MAS chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said.
Flight MH370 lost contact one minute before entering Vietnam's airspace.
He said there had been no indication the plane was in distress and that an early review showed that there was no bad weather.
In Beijing, tempers frayed as angry family members left a hotel near Beijng airport on Saturday afternoon, yelling that they were not getting any updates from MAS and demanding that the Chinese government send military planes to conduct search and rescue efforts.
A distraught woman in her 30s shouted to a mob of journalists: "All we have is a piece of paper saying the same things that you guys already know! We demand the Chinese government to send rescue teams immediately."
Questions were raised about why the airline released the news so late.
MAS put out its first statement at 7.24am. The first wire news report came out at 8.20am.
Adding to the confusion were rumours that started early on Saturday morning, first saying the plane had landed safely in Vietnam, then that it had landed in the southern city of Nanning in China.
Later came reports that it had crashed in the waters off Vietnam.
In Kuala Lumpur, MAS told passengers' next of kin to come to the international airport with their passports to prepare to fly to the crash site, which had still not been identified.
There was no information of a possible bomb or terror attack behind the missing plane, and Malaysia is studying all possibilities, Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters on Saturday.
State-owned Malaysian Air recently announced plans to upgrade its fleet after failing to post a profit in each of the past three years.
The aircraft was 11 years and 10 months old and had fuel to fly to Beijing and beyond, CEO Ahmad Jauhari said. Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and First Officer Fariq Ab. Hamid, 27, were the pilots, according to an airline statement. The captain had 18,365 flying hours and joined the company in 1981, while his first officer had 2,763 hours of flying. - With information from The Straits Times China Bureau.
At this stage we still have no confirmation on what has happened to MH370.
But speculation about a possible terror attack has increased in the past few hours in light of the revelation that two of the passengers were travelling of stolen passport.
Last week 33 people were stabbed to death and 130 injured after a terror attack at a railway station in north-western China.
The government blamed separatists for the slaughter.
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My guess is that it can be an insider job.
Airport technician may have tweaked the communications part to malfunction when it reaches a particular temperature and time. (replaced copper with solder?) I have very little expreince with eletronics so my guess is limited
Someone spiked the pilot's food? Insider job again?
Or for the worst, plane kenna bombed.
KUALA LUMPUR (REUTERS) - Malaysian authorities are investigating the identities of at least two other passengers on a missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, in addition to two who were found to be using stolen passports, a security official said.
Investigators were verifying the identities with the relevant embassies in Malaysia, said the official, who has knowledge of the investigation and declined to be identified.
The passengers being checked had all bought their tickets through China Southern Airlines, the official said.
The flight carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew was presumed to have crashed off the Vietnamese coast on Saturday, after losing contact with air traffic controllers off the eastern Malaysia coast.
There was a possibility that the missing Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 had to make an "air turn back", Malaysia's Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on Sunday.
He said they were investigating all possible reasons for this around turn including the possibility of terrorism. Malaysia was working with foreign intelligence agencies including the FBI and counter-terrorism units on this.
He said at a press conference on Sunday that they were also investigating reports that at least two passengers had boarded the flight with false passports.
Two men - an Italian and an Austrian - have come forward to say that they were not on the flight although their names appears on the manifest. Their passports had been reported lost in Thailand. The manifest only lists names of passengers who have boarded the flight.
Latest reports state that another two passengers with European passports did not board the flight despite their names appearing on the list.
Mr Hishammuddin refused to give their names or nationalities but said all four were being investigated.
"Not just the four, the whole manifest is being investigated now. It's not concluded that people with stolen passports were on board, it's still being investigated," he said.
He declined to say if there was a security lapse.
"Our main focus is to find the aircraft. There is a possibility that the plane had to make an air turn back so we have to expand the search area," he said.
The search area had expanded to the west coast of Malaysia.
He said Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation and the Royal Malaysian Air Force were looking into the reasons for the turn back, and would announce their findings later.
He also said he spoke to Singapore's Defence Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen on Saturday who agreed to deploy three Singapore vessels to help with the search.
They are MV Swift Rescue, a submarine support and rescue vessel, RSS Vigour, a missile corvette with search capabilities, and RSS Steadfast, a frigate with sonar search capabilities.
"We are very grateful for the help and response from our neighbouring states," he said.
Mr Hishammuddin confirmed that oil slicks were found in the area where the plane last had contact with Malaysia's air traffic control but no debris was found.
It also was not confirmed that debris was found off the east coast of Malaysia.
The Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 lost contact with Subang Air Traffic Control 50 minutes after departing KLIA at 12.41am on Saturday.
It was due to land in Beijing at 6.30am, and had enough fuel to fly up to 8.30am. The plane did not issue a distress signal nor was there bad weather when it disappeared.
The plane was last on the radar at approximately 120 nautical miles off Kota Baru, in the South China Sea, in the airspace bordering Vietnam. Malaysian air traffic control had just handed over control to the Vietnamese authorities when they lost contact.
The flight was carrying a total number of 239 passengers and crew - comprising 227 passengers (including 2 infants) and 12 crew members.
There were 15 nationalities on board, the majority Chinese nationals and Malaysians. No Singaporeans were on board.
The Vietnamese authorities are searching in their waters while Malaysia scoured their own. Other countries involved in the search are China, the Philippines, Singapore and the US.
Malaysia said the search would go on round the clock until a decision was made to call it off.
Flight MH370 was operated on a Boeing 777-200 aircraft, a codeshare with China Southern Airlines. The plane was 11 years 10 months old.
The next press conference is scheduled at 1pm.
ST
Former Army soldier Colonel Richard Kemp says the possibility that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 had been attacked by terrorists must be given serious consideration.
Col Kemp, a former head of counter-terrorism for the Joint Intelligence Committee and chairman of Cobra, said: "The possibility of this being a terror attack has to be seriously considered.
"Two passengers appeared to be travelling on stolen passports and there was no distress signal.
"We have seen recent terror attacks in China itself.
"We know the Uighurs minority have terrorist links.
"They are Muslim separatist militants and for quite a long time have carried out terrorist attacks.
"Only last weekend they were blamed for the knife attack at a station in Yunnan province, which left 29 dead.
"It is not beyond the bounds of possibility these people could be involved in the latest incident – either the Uighurs themselves or others seeking to support them.
"This group is known to have links with al-Qaeda - and we know that Islamist terrorists remain obsessed with attacks carried out by aircraft.
"Before 9/11 there was a plot based in the Philippines known as Operation Bojinka to bring down airliners flying from Asia to the US.
"It didn't work.
"Since then we have seen various other attempts to use planes as weapons or to blow them up.
"All these considerations point to a distinct possibility that this incident could be terrorism.
"If that proves to be the case, it will be regarded as a major spectacular by the terrorists."
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#MalaysiaAirlines #MH370: Plane's turn back was seen on military radar; one reason for the turn back was to return to KLIA: Air force chief
还找�到............
Heard on the radio someone called the passenger mobile phone and it was ringing. No one picked up.
Questions are now being raised about a Chinese passenger who was on the flight.
Chinese authorities say the passport number of missing passenger Zhao Qiwei - in fact, matches the passport of a man whose surname is Yu.
He is said to be alive and well in the Fujian Province.
According to Yu, he has never lost his passport, nor has he ever used it since it was issued in 2007.
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maybe will find soon
A Vietnamese search and rescue team said a Singaporean ship has notified them of seeing 'suspicious floating objects; around 100km southwest of the cuontry.
Three vessels are being sent out to the site, the first is expected arrive by 7pm local time.
A team of American aviation accident investigators, led by National Transportation Safety Board experts, is also en route to Asia.
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1. Act of terrorism
There was speculation that MH370 might have been attacked by terrorists after the Malaysian authorities said on Sunday they were investigating two passengers who were using stolen passports.
But officials and experts was quick to point out that there was no proof of foul play so far and there could be other explanations for the use of false identity documents.
The two passengers bought their tickets through China Southern Airlines, which was code-sharing the flight with Malaysia Airlines. They were using the documents of an Italian and an Austrian who apparently had their passports stolen in Thailand during the past two years, and had made police reports about the theft.
"It had to be quick because there was no communication," Mr Goglia told Reuters, adding that the false identities of the two passengers was "a big red flag".
Mr Kip Hawley, a former administrator of the US Transportation Security Administration, told Bloomberg News that the incident "sounds like a lot of other plots". He referred to an incident in 2006 involving terrorists who wanted to down jetliners in the Atlantic Ocean by using liquid explosives. That plan was foiled by United States and British officials. Mr Hawley told Bloomberg News that he has been especially concerned about bombs hidden in the shoes of passengers as they are powerful enough to bring down aircraft.
According to a 2012 report by the US State Department, Malaysia has been vulnerable to terrorist activity and it has been used as a transit and planning hub for terrorists. Still, the department noted that the country has not suffered a serious terrorism incident for "several years".
Others noted that the plane's disappearance came at the end of the annual National People's Congress in Beijing, and took place at a time of rising concern in China about terrorism.
Colonel Colonel Richard Kemp, former counter-terrorism head of the British government's Joint Intelligence Committee, told British papers that the possibility of a terror attack has to be seriously considered. He pointed to reported links between between the separatists from China's Xinjiang and Al-Qaeda. China has blamed the separatists for a recent attack in Yunnan which left 29 people dead.
Mr Steve Vickers, the chief executive of a Hong Kong-based security consulting company that specialises in risk mitigation and corporate intelligence in Asia, told The New York Times that the presence of multiple travellers on stolen passports aboard a single jet was rare and a potential clue.
But some have warned that it was too early too jump to conclusion because forged travel documents were also used routinely by smugglers and illegal immigrants.
A US Department of Homeland Security official told The Los Angeles Times: "Just because they (the passports) were stolen doesn't mean the travellers were terrorists. They could have been nothing more than thieves. Or they could have simply bought the passports on the black market."
The Los Angeles Times also quoted a top federal law enforcement official in Washington as saying that no known terrorist link has surfaced, and no organisation has claimed responsibility for downing the plane.
Some noted that there have been cases of plane hijacking. But experts said it seems unlikely in this case given that the hijackers would typically force the plane to land at an airport and make known their demand. But some said a Sept 11-like hijacking is possible, with terrorists forcing the plane into the ocean.
2. Explosion on board
Some pilots and aviation experts said an explosion on board appeared to be a likely cause. The plane was at cruising altitude, the safest phase of flight, and likely would have been on autopilot.
"It was either an explosion, lightning strike or severe decompression," said a former Malaysia Airlines pilot who declined to be named. "The Boeing 777 can fly after a lightning strike and even severe decompression. But with an explosion, there is no chance. It is over."
Others said an extreme, sudden loss of cabin pressure could have caused an explosive decompression and broken the plane apart. Such a decompression can be caused by corrosion or metal fatigue in the airframe.
3. Mechanical fault
It emerged on Sunday that the plane had made an unusual U-turn attempt in the final moments before radar contact was broken off, triggering speculation that it could have turned back because of mechanical fault.
Experts said an "air turn back" or ATB means the aircraft has to return to the airport of origin as a result of a malfunction or suspected malfunction of any item on the aircraft. But they noted that the pilot would have made a distress call or signal about the turn back.
Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya added that the Boeing 777's systems would have set off alarm bells. "When there is an air turn-back, the pilot would be unable to proceed as planned," he said.
Some also raised the possibility that both engines of the plane could have failed.
In January 2008, a British Airways 777 crashed about 1,000 feet short of the runway at London's Heathrow Airport. As the plane was coming in to land, the engines lost thrust because of ice buildup in the fuel system. There were no fatalities.
Experts said loss of both engines is possible in this case, but they also noted that the plane could glide for up to 20 minutes, giving pilots plenty of time to make an emergency call.
In January 2009, a US Airways A320 lost both of its engines after taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York. But the captain still had plenty of communications with air traffic controllers before ending the six-minute flight in the Hudson River.
Reports on Sunday said that the Malaysia Airlines plane suffered a broken wing tip when it was involved in a minor collision with another aircraft in 2012. But the airline said the damaged portion of the wing tip, approximately a metre, has been repaired by Boeing.
4. Sudden stall of the plane
Some experts have pointed to some similarities between the MH370 mystery and the the loss of Air France Flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, killing all 228 passengers and crew on board.
The Air France accident was initially blamed by the airline on a thunderstorm. Later, investigators found that speed sensors, known as pitot tubes, on the outside of the Airbus iced over and caused the auto-pilot to disengage.
But data recovered after a two-year search led the authorities to conclude that pilot error had also played a part - the crew's handling of the plane after the auto-pilot was disengaged put it into a stall from which it could not recover.
A stall is when a plane stops flying and starts falling. According to investigations, the pilots - who had never been trained to fly the aircraft in manual mode at high altitude - had raised the nose of the plane repeatedly when they should have been lowering it, thereby bleeding off speed and eventually putting the plane into a stall.
5. Pilot fault
Some said pilot disorientation could be a possible - though unlikely - cause.
The pilots could have taken the plane off autopilot and somehow went off course and did not realise it until it was too late. But some experts pointed out that this was unlikely because the plane probably would have been picked up by radar.
There have also been rare cases of pilot suicide.
A Cairo-bound EgyptAir flight, which took off from New York in 1999, crashed into the Atlantic south of Massachusetts, killing all 217 passengers and crew.
The US National Transportation Safety Board ruled that the crash was caused by co-pilot Gamil el-Batouty. According to reports, he had deliberately crashed the plane as an act of revenge after he had earlier been reprimanded for sexual misconduct and the executive who told him he would not be allowed to fly US routes again was on board the plane.
The Egyptian authorities, however, disagreed with the cause of the crash, blaming it instead on technical problems.
Source: Reuters, AFP
The two people who traveled on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 under the passports of an Italian and an Austrian citizen appear to have bought their tickets together, CNN reported today.
The tickets were bought from China Southern Airlines in Thai baht at identical prices, according to China's official e-ticket verification system Travelsky.
The ticket numbers are contiguous, which indicates the tickets were issued together. China Southern Airlines sold seven tickets for the code share flight, another media reported yesterday.
The new information adds to the mystery that has enveloped the fate of Flight MH370 which disappeared over Southeast Asia early Saturday on its way to Beijing.
Italy and Austria have said that none of their citizens were on board the plane. And officials say the Italian and Austrian, whose names were on the passenger manifest, both had their passports stolen in Thailand in recent years.
The two tickets booked with China Southern Airlines both start in Kuala Lumpur, flying to Beijing, and then onward to Amsterdam. The Italian passport's ticket continues to Copenhagen, the Austrian's to Frankfurt, CNN said.
But it was unclear how people with stolen passports could have obtained visas to travel to China or passed through immigration control checks in Malaysia.
“As far as we are aware, every one of these people onboard that aircraft had a visa to go to China,” Hugh Dunleavy, director of commercial operations at Malaysia Airlines, told reporters in Beijing.
“Which means those passports were in possession of the Chinese embassy before those visas were issued.”
Authorities say they are investigating the identities of some of those on board who appear to have issues with their passports.
The Boeing 777-200, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, may have changed course and turned back toward Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian military officials said at a news conference today.
But the pilot appears to have given no signal to authorities that he was turning around, the officials said, attributing the change of course to indications from radar data.
Forty ships and 22 planes continues to scour a portion of the South China Sea for any sign of where the flight might have gone down, authorities said today.
The large, multinational team is focusing its efforts near the Gulf of Thailand, part of the South China Sea that lies between several Southeast Asian countries.
The area in focus, about 145km south of Vietnam's Tho Chu Island, is the same one as where a Vietnamese search plane reportedly spotted oil slicks that stretched between six and nine miles.
Malaysian authorities have not yet confirmed the report of the oil slicks, which came from Vietnam's official news agency.
But the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) also said it spotted oil slicks 20 nautical miles from the aircraft's last known position. A ship has been sent to collect samples for analysis.
As the search continues, relatives of those on board the plane continue to await news of the fate of their loved ones.
Among the passengers, there were 154 people from China or Taiwan; 38 Malaysians, and three US citizens. Five of the passengers were below 5-years-old.
If all those on board the flight are found to have died, it will rank as the deadliest airline disaster since November 12, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587 crashed into a New York neighborhood, killing all 260 people on board and five more on the ground.
Malaysian authorities have been in contact with counterterrorism organisations about possible passport issues, Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein said.
He did not specify how many potential passport issues there were, saying authorities are looking at the whole passenger manifest.
The US government has been briefed on the stolen passports and reviewed the names of the passengers in question but found nothing at this point to indicate foul play, said a US law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Of the two passports in question, the Italian one had been reported stolen and was in Interpol's database, CNN Law Enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes said, citing sources at Interpol.
Additionally, no inquiry was made by Malaysia Airlines to determine if any passengers on the flight were traveling on stolen passports, he said, adding "many airlines do not check the database".
The National Transportation Safety Board announced late Saturday that a team of its investigators was en route to Asia to help with the investigation, the agency said. – March 9, 2014.
Originally posted by Mr Milo:1) All mechanical problems will definitely be red flagged by the pilots and made known to nearby control towers if they must make an emergency landing.
- This means they will have ample time to send out distress calls. Sudden stall of engine….......that’s a remote possibility. There should be some mechanisms to support flight given it’s a Boeing 777 aircraft.
2) That leaves only the possibility of terrorists. Then again, what is their motive for downing an MAS flight? If they really dislike Najib so much, they could jolly well shoot him when he is in public.
- 154 China passengers onboard....did they mean to send a message to China?
This is a cowardly act, i will say, targeting civilians.- They could attach bombs to their vehicles and crash into the Chinese leader escort convoys. That will be a brave act.
Until they recover the black box, it’s all speculation leaned more towards terrorism.
There has been a lot of discontentment with the government withtin the minority groups in China. The above photo is a car bomb, FYI. Besides, those government cars are hard to reach and have really tight security.
and all out effort by ASEAN
In response to the indicent, the Royal Malaysian Air Force dispatched a CASA/IPTN CN-235 transport plane, a Beechcraft Super King Air B200T aircraft, four Lockheed C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft, two Bombardier Global Express aircraft, two Agusta A109 helicopters, and four Eurocopter EC725 long-range tactical transport helicopters. Six Royal Malaysian Navy vessels have also been dispatched , in addition to three Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency vessels to search the waters off its east coast in the South China Sea.[49][50] Malaysia Airlines has also sent a team of caregivers and volunteers dubbed GoTeam to provide assistance towards family members of the passengers.[51] Malaysia has also established a National Coordination Centre at the National Disaster Control Centre (NDCC) in Pulau Meranti, Cyberjaya to monitor the development of the situation.[52]
On 9 March, the Malaysian transport minister said in a media statement that rescue teams have widened their search area.[53] He also stated that the Malaysian intelligence agencies have been activated, while counter terrorism units in all relevant countries have been informed, adding that he has met with officers from the FBI, who have arrived in Malaysia. He has also noted that no Malaysian submarines will be deployed as they are 'not equipped for search and rescue'.[54]
The Australian government provided two Royal Australian Air Force Lockheed P-3 Orion planes to join the search and rescue operation.[55]
Two Chinese warships, Jinggang Shan and Mianyang, were dispatched to assist in the search. Jinggang Shan has two helicopters, 30 medical personnel, ten divers, and 52 marines, as well as life-saving and underwater detection equipment.[56]
Indonesian Navy has been communicating with the Malaysian counterparts and the Embassy of Indonesia in Kuala Lumpur has announced the country will be sending five ships to help Malaysian authorities for the search and rescue mission to locate the missing of the airplane.[57]
The Philippine AFP Western Command has sent BRP Gregorio del Pilar, BRP Emilio Jacinto, BRP Apolinario Mabini and a search-and-rescue plane to the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea to help in the search efforts.[29][58]
The Singaporean Air Force announced that it had dispatched a Lockheed C-130 Hercules to assist in the search on the first day the aircraft went missing.[59] Subsequently, the Singaporean Navy sent a frigate, a missile corvette and a Sikorsky S-70B Naval Helicopter.[60] MV Swift Rescue, a submarine rescue ship will join the search effort on the following Sunday.[61]
The Royal Thai Navy also has prepared to send three vessels and one aircraft to join the search and rescue mission.[62] Beside that, the country also cooperate in the search and rescue mission with Malaysia.[63]
The United States announced plans to send a P-3C Orion aircraft from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. The US Navy has deployed the guided missile destroyer USS Pinckney from Naval Base San Diego, carrying two MH-60R helicopters which can be equipped for search and rescue, to the southern coast of Vietnam to assist in the search.[64]
During the search, the Vietnamese Navy reported spotting at least one oil slick, between 10 and 20 km (6–12 mi) long, which is believed to be that of the missing aircraft.[65][66] It has been reported that Vietnamese Civil Aviation Department planes spotted two large oil slicks that authorities suspect are from the MAS jetliner. The slicks, each between 10 and 15 km (6–9 mi) long, and 500 metres (550 yd) apart, were spotted 140 nautical miles (260 km; 160 mi) south of Thổ Chu Island off southern Vietnam, and were consistent with the kind that would be caused by fuel from a crashed jetliner.[67] A report that the oil leak about 80 km long was clearly seen from a Vietnamese search and rescue AN-26 aircraft at 8:35 on 9 March 2014 on an investigated site approximately 150 km away from Cape Cà Mau.[68]
My thoughts are with the passengers. I really hope there are survivors to this disater.