PHU QUOC ISLAND, March 11 — Vietnamese authorities said today that they are widening their search for the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370, even as hopes of finding survivors grow dim.
Vietnam’s Air Force deputy commander Do Minh Tuan also said that Singapore will join in the underwater search tomorrow for the vanished jet with 239 people on board.
“Vietnam will search from Ca Mau to the south of Con Son Island tomorrow,” Do told a press conference here today, referring to the area between Vietnam’s southernmost province and an island southeast of the Ca Mau peninsula.
“We will not stop searching until we find something. We have international responsibilities,” he added.
Do also said that two planes from China were unsuccessful in finding anything in Vietnamese waters.
Vietnam’s deputy transport minister Pham Quy Tieu said earlier today that he feared for the worst, as the search for the Boeing 777 entered the fourth day.
The waters south of Tho Chu island near the southern edge of Vietnam is the site that has yielded the most sightings of “debris” from the plane, although all later proved to be false alarms.
The sightings began from the very first day MH370 was confirmed as missing on March 8, and has continued since.
On Sunday, an oil slick was spotted that search teams believed were from the Boeing 777, but later tests revealed this to be from bunkering oil.
Search and rescue efforts at Checkpoint Igari south of Tho Chu — the location of the MAS plane prior to it losing contact with ground controllers — was yesterday enlarged to cover a radius of 100 nautical miles, up from the original 50.
Another search zone was also formed in the Straits of Malacca, on the opposite side of peninsular Malaysia, after military radar suggested the flight may have attempted to turn around.
No trace of the plane and its passengers has surfaced, frustrating rescuers and baffling investigators alike.
There were 239 people on board flight MH370, including 12 crew members and two infants.
