Five Vietnamese planes and seven ships are combing an extended area around the site where the plane of Malaysia Airlines was believed to go missing on the East Sea on March 8.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Duc Tai of Air Force’s Regiment 917, who was on duty at Ca Mau Airport on March 10 morning said a helicopter had flown Deputy Minister of Transport Pham Quy Tieu to the location.

Two planes are conducting search at the site while another is helping with information. On early March 10, a naval hydroplane also departed from Phu Quoc Island to this area.

In all, Vietnam has dispatched five planes during the third day of the search for the missing Malaysian jetliner.

At Ca Mau Airport in the southernmost province of Ca Mau, a helicopter is ready to take off any time for rescue activities. The plane is equipped with two cranes capable of lifting two persons at the same time.

The weather in the past two days was favourable for search activities, with wind speed at 15-20 km per hour and visibility at between 7-10km.-VNA