Thailand sends HTMS Pattani to help search for missing MAS flight

MALACCA, MALAYSIA, March 10 (TNA) - Thailand has deployed HTMS Pattani, with 119 naval soldiers, to help search for a missing Boeing 777 jet of the Malaysian Airlines (MAS), as requested by neighboring Malaysia. The patrol vessel of the Royal Thai Navy entered the Strait of Malacca on early Monday morning, at 6am, and started the search immediately near Malaysia's Langkawi Island. The 119 Thai naval officers deployed for the special mission of the HTMS Pattani, which operates in Phang-nga Province in the Thai South, consist of 84 crewmembers of the patrol vessel, nine scuba divers of the Navy SEAL Thailand, three medical staffs, 11 Super Lynx helicopter staffs and 12 Dornier patrol plane officers, as assigned by Thai Navy Chief Admiral Narong Pipattanasai. The Royal Thai Nayy's mission will be continued until it receives an official order to abort it. Malaysian authorities have assumed, meanwhile, that the missing MAS plane, Flight MH370, could crash in the lower part of the Gulf of Thailand, which is part of the Vietnamese waters, or in the Strait of Malacca near the Andaman Sea. Singapore and Vietnamese vessels have also been helping search the Vietnamese waters (TNA)