Vietnam Searchers Fail to Find Debris from Missing Airliner | WPN World People News

Vietnamese searchers said they looked through the night but have not found possible aircraft debris that was spotted Sunday evening during the hunt for a Malaysian passenger jet that vanished with 239 people aboard.

Missing Malaysia Airlines plane

Vietnamese officials said searchers in a low-flying plane on Sunday had spotted what appeared to be a door from the missing airliner in waters 90 kilometers south of an island off Vietnam's southwest coast. However, officials said Monday that six planes and seven ships searching for the object had found nothing.

Earlier Sunday, officials investigating the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight said radar images show the missing jet may have inexplicably turned back before vanishing.

Malaysia's air force chief gave no further details on which direction the Boeing 777 flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing went or how far it veered off course before disappearing early Saturday.

Also Sunday, Thai police said they were investigating a "passport ring" as details emerged of bookings for the flight made in Thailand with stolen European passports.

Two Europeans (Christian Kozel, an Austrian, and Luigi Maraldi of Italy) were listed on the passenger manifest of flight MH370, but neither man boarded the plane.

Both had their passports stolen in Thailand during the past two years. Malaysia has launched a terror probe investigating the suspect passengers and the United States has sent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation to assist.

Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said authorities are investigating the identities of two additional passengers who boarded the plane with suspicious papers.

Interpol said Sunday no country had checked the international police agency's database that held information about the stolen Austrian and Italian passports used to board the Malaysia Airlines flight.

The Malaysia Airlines flight disappeared from radar screens about an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing in good weather. Most of the passengers were Chinese.

Air traffic controllers said they never received a distress calls before the jet disappeared.

The Boeing 777 is a very popular plane with an excellent safety record.

The most recent accident involving a Boeing 777 was the Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco International Airport in July 2013. Three people were killed. Pilot error is suspected in that incident.

Source: Voice of America