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Two large oil slicks spotted by the Vietnamese air force offered the first sign that a jetliner
carrying 239 people had crashed into the ocean after vanishing from radar without sending
a single distress call. An international fleet of planes and ships
scouted the waters between Malaysia and Vietnam for any clues to the fate of the Malaysian
Airlines Boeing 777, which disappeared Saturday less than an hour after taking off from Kuala
Lumpur bound for Beijing. The oil slicks sighted Saturday off the southern
tip of Vietnam were each between 10 kilometers (6 miles) and 15 kilometers (9 miles) long,
the Vietnamese government said in a statement. There was no immediate confirmation that the
slicks were related to Flight MH370, but the government said they were consistent with
the kind of slick that would be produced by the jet's two fuel tanks.
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's deputy civil aviation authority chief, Azhaddin Abdul Rahman, told
reporters that the oil slick find had yet to be verified.
He said that the air search, suspended for the night, resumed Sunday, in addition to
a sea search that continued through the darkness. The jet's disappearance was especially mysterious
because it apparently happened when the plane was at cruising altitude, not during the more
dangerous phases of takeoff or landing. Just 9 percent of fatal accidents happen when
a plane is at cruising altitude, according to a statistical summary of commercial jet
accidents done by Boeing. Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya
said there was no indication the pilots had sent a distress signal. That might mean that
whatever trouble befell the plane happened so fast the crew did not have time to broadcast
even a quick mayday. The lack of a radio call "suggests something
very sudden and very violent happened," said William Waldock, who teaches accident investigation
at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.
The plane was last inspected 10 days ago and found to be "in proper condition," Ignatius
Ong, CEO of Malaysia Airlines subsidiary Firefly airlines, said at a news conference.
Two-thirds of the jet's passengers were from China. The rest were from elsewhere in Asia,
North America and Europe. Asked whether terrorism was suspected, Malaysian
Prime Minister Najib Razak said authorities were "looking at all possibilities, but it
is too early to make any conclusive remarks."