Day 5

22:35 March 12

China has requested Malaysia to verify rumors that the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may have turned back from its scheduled course before vanishing.

21:00 March 12

The last communication received from a Malaysia Airlines plane suggests everything was normal on board minutes before it went missing over the South China Sea, Malaysian authorities say.

Flight MH370 replied "All right, roger that" to a radio message from Malaysian air control, authorities said.

19:50 March 12

Malaysian authorities confirmed they have extended their search to the Straits of Malacca even though there may only be a slight possibilitiy that flight MH370 passed over the area.

They also said they expect to receive permission from Vietnam for Malaysian teams to search Vietnamese waters.

A total of 42 ships and 39 aircraft are taking part in the multinational search for the missing plane, and they have once again expanded the search area, which now covers 27,000 square miles in the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea, said Malaysian authorities.

19:20 March 12

The missing Malaysian jetliner seemed unlikely to have fallen in water off Vietnam as the country has conducted intensive search and no clues have been found so far, some senior Vietnamese officials said here Wednesday.

19:10 March 12

Officials in Kuala Lumpur dismissed claims that a Vietnamese helicopter had found a floating yellow object which could possibly be a life raft from the missing Malaysian plane.

19:00 March 12

China sent a third military aircraft on Wednesday to help search for the missing Malaysian plane as the search range expanded to land areas.

18:40 March 12

China sends a supply ship Wednesday morning with the aim of replenishing – transferring fuel and stores - to Chinese ships searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet.

The supply ship - which is making its way from a naval port in Zhejiang province to the Gulf of Thailand, and is also carrying underwater detection equipment, navy divers, soldiers and medics – is expected to arrive in the search area by 4:40 am on March 17. (more)

18:10 March 12

Malaysia's military radar detected what could have been the jetliner missing since Saturday in an area in the northern Malacca Strait, hundreds of miles from the spot where the plane dropped off air traffic screens, the air force chief said on Wednesday. (more)

17:40 March 12

Guo Shaochun, head of a joint working group in Kuala Lumpur investigating the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines jet, called for accurate and timely information from the Malaysian side, and said the working group would not leave until the aircraft is located. (more)

17:20 March 12

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency has moved its search and rescue teams to the Andaman Sea to the south of Thailand to continue search for for the missing flight MH370, Malaysian official said Wednesday.

17:05 March 12

The BBC reports that Vietnam has despatched a plane to investigate an eyewitness report of a possible object burning in the sky east of the country.

17:00 March 12

Malaysia has asked for India's assistance in searching for the missing Boeing 777 jetliner to widen the search to an area near the Andaman Sea, an Indian official said Wednesday.

16:30 March 12

A senior Malaysia Airlines' executive said on Wednesday that the airline has "no reason to believe" that any actions by the crew caused the disappearance of a jetliner over the weekend.

16:20 March 12

Vietnam will not suspend search for a missing Malaysian jetliner as the search and rescue operation continued into the fifth day on Wednesday, Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese army, said at the National Committee for Search and Rescue in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.

16:00 March 12

Japan Wednesday decided to send four planes of its Self-Defense Forces to help search for a missing Malaysian Airlines passenger plane, according to local media.

15:50 March 12

A Foreign Ministry spokeman dismissed reports that Chinese planes are searching for the missing Malaysian plane over land, saying that the military aircraft are still conducting search and rescue operations at sea.

He also urged Malaysia to coordinate international search and rescue efforts and speed up the search for missing Malaysia Air flight MH370.

14:00 March 12

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang urged a more intensified search for a missing Malaysia Airlines jet with 154 Chinese on board on Wednesday while speaking with the captain of a naval vessel on the search mission on the phone.

13:20 March 12

Malaysia Airlines said Wednesday afternoon that 115 family members of the passengers on its missing flight MH370 have arrived in Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia. 

The company said in a latest statement that "they are taken care of by 72 different caregivers, and at least one caregiver is assigned to each family together with a Mandarin translator for the families from China."

(www.malaysiaairlines.com)    

A delegation from China led by Guo Shaochun meets with Malaysian officials dealing with the missing Malaysian Airlines aircraft at a hotel near the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Wednesday.

11:25 March 12

Malaysia's air force chief has denied saying military radar tracked a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner over the Strait of Malacca. >>

10:20 March 12

Vietnam partially suspends search for MH370

Vietnam said on Wednesday it was scaling back the search in Vietnamese waters for a Malaysian Airlines jetliner missing for four days, a senior Vietnamese official said.

"We still have plans to search with a few flights today, while other activities are suspended," Deputy Transport Minister Pham Quy Tieu, who heads the Vietnam search, told reporters.

Tieu said searches by ships were being suspended. He said Vietnam had asked Malaysian authorities for information about reports that the plane, carrying 239 passengers and crew, had changed direction after its last known contact on Saturday but it had yet to receive any response. (Reuters)

08:30 March 12

Malaysia's military believes a jetliner missing for almost four days turned and flew hundreds of kilometres to the west after it last made contact with civilian air traffic control off the country's east coast, a senior officer told Reuters on Tuesday.

02:52 March 12

China will adjust its search for the missing MH370 over an expanded range and involve more Chinese ships in the rescue work, the emergency team said Tuesday.

A total of seven Chinese vessels are in the area now with another due to arrive on Wednesday morning, said He Jianzhong, deputy head of the emergency team.

No suspect floating objects or undersea traces had been detected by 6 pm Tuesday after searching for an area of 6,000 square kilometers.