A tourist writes a message expressing hope for family members and those onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, in Kuala Lumpur
A tourist from Vietnam writes a message expressing hope for family members and those onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, in Kuala Lumpur March 12, 2014. REUTERS/Samsul Said

Update on March 24, 2014: Flight MH370 'crashed in south Indian Ocean' - Malaysia PM

Vietnam has announced that it suspended the air-search for the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370. On the other hand, it said that it had decided to continue the sea search while waiting for Malaysia's clarification on new advancements in the hunt involving several countries.

Pham Quy Tieu, Vietnam's deputy minister of transport, said that the country had decided to suspend certain segments of the search and rescue process. He said that boats would continue to search for the missing flight in the area even though the air-search was suspended. However, boats are going to perform the search operation on a much smaller scale, he said - Nine MSN reported.

On the other hand, Malaysia has reportedly expanded the search for the missing flight into the Andaman Sea. A Malaysian official said on Wednesday, March 12, that the search would cover an area of hundreds of miles to the north-west of where the actual search radius used to be. On the contrary, the claim that the missing flight had been found deviating from its planned track was denied.

According to a national newspaper in Malaysia, MH370 has been discovered over the Strait of Malacca off western Malaysia, which was not a part of the planned track of the Malaysian Airlines flight. When Mr. Tieu was asked about the claim, he said that Malaysian authorities were yet to respond even though they had been asked twice about the report. He said that Malaysia was informed on the way Vietnam lost track of the flight. The flight was observed to have turned back west, but there was no response from Malaysia, he added.

Meanwhile, CNN reported that the mobile phones of the passengers on MH370 kept on ringing even long after the plane had been reported to be missing on Saturday, March 8. When relatives of the 239 passengers came to know about the flight to be reportedly missing, they instantly tried calling their mobile phones. This intensified the mystery involving the missing flight MH370.

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