Suspected crash site of MH370 expected to be reached tonight

Vietnamese air force planes have sighted two large oil slicks stretching for 15 – 20 km in the sea  near Tho Chu Island, Vietnam on Saturday afternoon. It is suspected that they are related to the missing Malaysian Airlines Boeing-777 aircraft.

At 4:25pm (Vietnam time), an AN 26 aircraft found a large oil spill in the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam. The aircraft later discovered another oil spill about 150 km from Tho Chu Island. The Vietnamese authorities have informed both Singapore and Malaysia about the oil spills for further verification. 

So far, the search and rescue agencies of both Singapore and Malaysia report that they have found no traces of the crashed plane.

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Transport Pham Quy Tieu, who is leading the Vietnamese search and rescue operations, assumes that the 15-20 km long oil streak is related to the missing plane. 

Meanwhile, Lai Xuan Thanh, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, says that it is highly unusual that the Malaysian aircraft had not automatically sent its signals to tracking satellites.

By 6:30pm, Vietnam had deployed 2 aircrafts and 7 boats to locate the missing Malaysian plane. Since then, the two planes have returned to base as nightfall made air search operations difficult. Meanwhile, three Vietnamese vessels, including a naval ship, a coast guard boat and a rescue boat, are sailing to the site of crash, along with vessels from the Malaysian and Philippines fleet.

It is expected that the suspected crash site will be reached by 10-11pm.

(Source: Yahoo Vietnam)