Post date: Mar 10, 2014 7:51:41 PM
Vietnam search and rescue teams scour the South Vietnam Sea in the Gulf ofThailand, looking for any sign of the Malaysian airliner that went missing on its flight to Beijing.
PHU QUOC ISLAND, VIETNAM (MARCH 10, 2014) (REUTERS) - Search and rescue teams from Vietnam joined crews from nine other countries on Monday (March 10), scouring the seas around Malaysia and south ofVietnam, for any sign of the Malaysian airliner that vanished around an hour into a flight to Beijing.
The plane's disappearance is an "unprecedented mystery", the civil aviation chief said, as a massive air and sea search now in its third day failed to find any trace of the plane or the 239 people on board.Questions mounted over possible security lapses and whether a bomb or hijacking attempt could have brought down the Boeing 777-200ER which took off from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Flight MH370 disappeared from radar screens in the early hours of Saturday, after climbing to a cruising altitude of 35,000 ft (10,670 meters).
The area of the search would be widened from Tuesday, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the head of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Authority, told reporters.
Hopes of a breakthrough rose briefly when Vietnam scrambled helicopters to investigate a floating yellow object it thought could have been a life raft.
"This afternoon, according to order, we took off to the area where yesterday our Air Force's DC-H6 spotted an unidentified object. We took off from Phu Quoc island and searching the area for an hour but did not find anything," said Colonel Tran Dinh Quang of Squadron 370.
Vietnam's Civil Aviation Authority said on its website that the object turned out to be a "moss-covered cap of a cable reel".
A senior police official told Reuters that people armed with explosives and carrying false identity papers had tried to fly out of Kuala Lumpur in the past, and that current investigations were focused on two passengers who were on the missing plane with stolen passports.
Interpol confirmed on Sunday at least two passengers used stolen passports and said it was checking whether others aboard had used false identity documents.
About two-thirds of the 227 passengers and 12 crew now presumed to have died aboard the plane were Chinese.
The airline said other nationalities included 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French and three Americans.
A senior source involved in preliminary investigations in Malaysia said the failure to find any debris indicated the plane may have broken up mid-flight, which could disperse wreckage over a very wide area.
Asked about the possibility of an explosion, the source said there was no evidence of foul play and that the aircraft could have broken up due to mechanical causes.