Vietnamese forces are widening their search for the missing Malaysian plane towards the north-west of the initially suspected area, said the Office of the National Committee for Search and Rescue on March 10.

Malaysia will carry out the search in the area to the south of Ho Chi Minh City-based flight information region while Singapore will do its job in the waters between Viet Nam and Malaysia.

A total of 23 planes and 39 vessels from Viet Nam, Malaysia, China, US, the Philippines and Singapore are expected to join the search efforts.

As of 11pm on March 9, Viet Nam dispatched 7 airplanes and 8 vessels of various kinds to the scene.

The following are some major developments on March 9, the second day of the search for the Malaysian jetliner which went mission on the way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.

At 8:50am, Viet Nam’s search plane discovered an oil slick measuring 10x80km in the north-south direction, some 80km from the location initially believed to be where the plane went missing.

Later at 14:43pm, Singapore’s aircraft sighted a floating strange object. A Vietnamese ship arrived at the scene for investigation but no result is yet made unavailable.

Then at 18:15pm, Viet Nam’s hydroplane DHC6 detected a while rectangular object with a round hole in the middle. A ship coded KN 774 was on the way to the site to verify the discovery.

At the request of the Chinese and US sides, Viet Nam has allowed three Chinese vessels and one US ship to enter its waters to join in the search.

(Source : VNA)