Hanoi, March 15 (IANS): Vietnam has decided to end the search for the missing Malaysian jet, a senior military officer said at Vietnam's National Committee for Search and Rescue here Saturday.
Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of the General Staff of Vietnam People's Army, told reporters the decision was made after Vietnam received information from Vietnamese ambassador to Malaysia Saturday afternoon that Malaysia has decided to stop searching in the South China Sea, Xinhua reported.
Do Ba Ty, chief of the General Staff of Vietnam People's Army and deputy defence minister, announced the decision at a meeting held at the headquarters of the defence ministry on receiving the information.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 with 239 passengers and crew on board vanished mysteriously about an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur early morning March 8. It was presumed to have crashed off the Vietnamese coast in the South China Sea.
The 227 passengers on the flight included five Indians, 154 Chinese and 38 Malaysians.
Contact with the plane was lost along with its radar signal when it was flying over the air traffic control area of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
A multinational intensive search has so far failed to locate the plane.