Major general Pham Hoai Giang, head of the Office of the National Committee for Search and Rescue said a surveillance plane departed from Tan Son Nhat International Airport at 02.37pm and the remaining seven are put on standby for the operation.
The nine ships, including five of the Vietnam People’s Navy, two of the National Maritime Police, and two rescue ships SAR 272 & 413 of the Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Centre (VMSCC), are also on standby.
Vietnam News Agency quoted sources saying Malaysia has sent a plane, two helicopters, and four ships to comb through the waters where Boeing 777-300 ER was reported missing.
The Philippines said it would deploy three patrol ships and a surveillance plane to support the rescue work.
The Malaysian Airlines aircraft, with a total of 239 passengers and crew on board, was reported to lose contact and crash into the adjacent waters between Vietnam and Malaysia, about 152 nautical miles of Kien Giang’s Tho Chu island.
