KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 — French investigators involved in the Air France 447 disaster five years ago arrived in Malaysia today to lend a hand in the ongoing search for Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370.

The Transport Ministry said in a statement here that three officials from the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la sécurité de l'aviation civile (BEA), France’s aviation authority, arrived in the capital city today to join the probe.

“The officials will share their expertise and knowledge based on their experience from the search for Air France Flight 447,” the ministry said.

In 2009, Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people on board.

The bulk of the wreckage of the Airbus plane, its flight “black box” recorders and the majority of bodies were found only two years later after four searches.

Debris and the first bodies were, however, recovered within five days since it disappeared. But the bodies of 74 passengers remain missing.

In contrast, no trace of MH370 has yet to be found since the Boeing 777-200ER jetliner vanished in the early hours of March 8.

The Transport Ministry also said that the Malaysian navy and air force will deploy their assets in the southern corridor today, which is the arc from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

“The number of countries involved in the search and rescue operation has increased from 14 to 26. These countries are: Malaysia, Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, China, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Turkmenistan, UAE, UK, US, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam,” said the ministry.

The ministry added that the Foreign Ministry has sent diplomatic notes to countries along the southern and northern corridor today, the areas where MH370 may possibly be found, to request for assistance on matters like radar and satellite information; land, sea and aerial search operations; search and rescue action plans; and details of information required from Malaysia.

On Saturday, Putrajaya said satellite data indicated that the plane could be in one of two corridors: a northern arc from northern Thailand to the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in central Asia, or a southern one from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

Following the discovery, search and rescue operations in the South China Sea that had been the site of much of the initial search was terminated, with the assets re-deployed to the Indian Ocean.