(Reuters) — Two warships of the Chinese navy, “Jinggangshan” and “Mianyang”, are on their way to sea area where the Malaysia Airline flight MH 370 was out of touch.
The vessel “Jinggangshan”, loaded with life-saving equipments, underwater detection facilities and supplies of water and food, set out from Zhanjiang city of south China’s Guangdong Province at about 03:00 on Sunday for search and rescue mission.
Two helicopters, 30 medical personnel, 10 divers and 52 marines are on board.
Another Chinese navy vessel “Mianyang” left for the sea area on Saturday night.
A Boeing 777-200 aircraft operated by Malaysia Airlines left the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 00:41 on March 8 and was expected to land in Beijing at 06:30 after a 3,700-km trip.
Contact with the flight was lost along with its radar signal at 01:20 on March 8 when it was flying over the Ho Chi Minh air traffic control area in Vietnam.
The flight has 227 passengers, including 154 Chinese, and 12 Malaysian flight crew.