Vietnam's Civil Aviation Authority released an image of what appeared to be an object floating in the sea
A
multinational team searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet are
to begin investigating possible debris spotted in the sea off south
Vietnam.
Officials said it was too dark to be certain, but ships will try to confirm the find after dawn.
Focus is also on two passengers who were travelling on stolen passports.
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Malaysia Airlines lost contact with Flight MH370 for five
hours before it confirmed the news. The slow pace of information forced
Malaysians to turn to social media first - then ask the authorities to
confirm speculation or reports that appeared online.
Among the many questions was how two passengers with fake European passports could have boarded the flight.
Over the past four years, I have travelled frequently through the same airport. As a Canadian passport holder I have to scan both index fingers before I enter the country but not when I leave. The biometric system was set up in 2011 to prevent foreigners from repeatedly coming in to work illegally and to curb human trafficking and wildlife smuggling.
Malaysian officials say they are working hard to answer questions. They have reminded people to avoid speculation, but it hasn't reassured distressed family members.
Analysis
Among the many questions was how two passengers with fake European passports could have boarded the flight.
Over the past four years, I have travelled frequently through the same airport. As a Canadian passport holder I have to scan both index fingers before I enter the country but not when I leave. The biometric system was set up in 2011 to prevent foreigners from repeatedly coming in to work illegally and to curb human trafficking and wildlife smuggling.
Malaysian officials say they are working hard to answer questions. They have reminded people to avoid speculation, but it hasn't reassured distressed family members.
Malaysian military officials said
on Sunday that the plane, a Boeing 777-200ER, may have turned back from
its scheduled route shortly before vanishing from radar screens,
further deepening the mystery surrounding its fate.
Contact lost
Flight MH730 left Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing, at 00:41 local time on Saturday (16:41 GMT on Friday). But radio contact was lost at 17:30 GMT, somewhere between Malaysia and Vietnam.
Late on Sunday, the Vietnamese authorities said possible debris from the plane had been spotted in the sea off south Vietnam.
"We received information from a Vietnamese plane saying that they found two broken objects, which seem like those of an aircraft, located about 50 miles to the south-west of Tho Chu Island," an unnamed official from the National Committee for Search and Rescue told AFP news agency.
"As it is night they cannot fish them out for proper identification. They have located the position of the areas and flown back to the land," he added.
The state-run Thanh Nien newspaper quoted Lt Gen Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of Vietnam's army, as saying searchers in a low-flying plane had spotted an object which resembled an aeroplane door.
The BBC's John Sudworth: "Family members have been told to prepare for the worst"
Fake passports
There are now 40 ships and 34 aircraft from nine different nations taking part in the search for the missing plane in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia.
But officials say they still have no idea what happened to the aircraft. They say they are looking at all angles, including a possible terror attack.
Counter-terrorism agencies and the FBI are involved in the operation.
The identities of some of the people onboard are being investigated.
The BBC's Alice Budisatrijo describes the growing search effort
International police agency Interpol also confirmed that two passengers were travelling on stolen passports registered on its databases.
The passengers - travelling with Italian and Austrian passports that had been stolen in Thailand - purchased their plane tickets at the same time, and were both booked on the same onward flight from Beijing to Europe on Saturday.
Both had purchased their tickets from China Southern Airlines, which shared the flight with Malaysia Airlines, and they had consecutive ticket numbers.
Ships have been waiting until dawn to investigate the reported debris
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Manifest for Flight MH370
- 153 Chinese including one child
- 38 Malaysians
- 7 Indonesians
- 6 Australians
- 5 Indians
- 4 French
- 3 Americans including one child
- 2 each from New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada
- One each from Russia, Taiwan, Italy, Netherlands and Austria ( although both Italy and Austria deny any of their nationals were onboard)
"Whilst it is too soon to
speculate about any connection between these stolen passports and the
missing plane, it is clearly of great concern that any passenger was
able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in
Interpol databases," the secretary general of Interpol, Ronald Noble, said in a statement.
The passengers on the flight were of 14 different nationalities. Two-thirds were from China, while others were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.
Malaysia Airlines is the country's national carrier, flying nearly 37,000 passengers daily to some 80 destinations worldwide.
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