Angkatan Laut Vietnam Akui Terima Sinyal Darurat dari Malaysia Airlines
Vietnamese Navy Reports Picking Up Emergency Signal from Plane Malaysia Airlines
Editor : Cahyani Harzi
Translator : Dhelia Gani
 b3.jpg)
PETINGGI militer Vietnam menyatakan bahwa pesawat Boeing 777-200ER milik Malaysia Airlines (MAS) jatuh di selatan Vietnam. Namun pernyataan yang dilansir media pemerintah Vietnam kemudian meralatnya, yang dinyatakan 'hilang'.
Perwira tinggi angkatan laut Vietnam mengonfirmasi adanya deteksi sinyal darurat dari lokasi pesawat, diperkirakan berada 53 km sebelah selatan dari pulau Phu Quoc di laut Cina Selatan.
Laksamana Ngo Van Phat mengatakan kepada surat kabar Vietnam, Tuoi Tre bahwa radar menunjukkan pesawat itu jatuh ke laut di lepas pantai di ujung selatan Vietnam, dekat perbatasan dengan Kamboja, seperti dilansir Mail Online.
Surat kabar tersebut melansir pernyataan petinggi milier, yang menyatakan radar mendapati dugaan lokasi kecelakaan pesawat naas tersebut.
Sementara kapal angkatan laut Malaysia menyatakan belum mendapati kondisi darurat dari perkiraan lokasi reruntuhan pesawat ketika kapal tersebut tiba di kawasan maritim di lepas pantai timur laut negara itu pagi ini, kata seorang pejabat senior dari badan SAR setempat.
Malaysia telah mengirimkan tiga kapal sipil dan kapal angkatan laut ke kawasan tersebut, didukung oleh tiga helikopter, kata pejabat Badan Maritim Malaysia.
'Pesawat kami melihat sebuah titik oranye di laut di mana sinyal terakhir diterima dari pesawat naas tersebut. Kami mengirim kapal untuk mencari di lokasi dimaksud dan menegaskan bahwa hasilnya nihil," "katanya.
Sinyal yang diterima oleh Angkatan Laut diyakini berasal Emergency Locator Transmittor, yang dapat diaktifkan secara manual oleh awak pesawat atau secara otomatis pada kondisi darurat.
Rute penerbangan melintasi kawasan tersebut memang harus ditempuh oleh pesawat dengan nomor penerbangan MH370 dari pesawat B777-200, melintasi daratan Malaysia menuju timur laut dan kemudian menyeberangi Teluk Thailand.
Sebuah laporan yang belum dikonfirmasi pada situs pelacak rute penerbangan mengatakan pesawat itu jatuh di ketinggian 650 kaki dan mengubah arah pesawat sebelum putus komunikasi dengan radar.
VIETNAMESE state media, quoting a senior naval official, had reported that the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Boeing 777-200ER flight had crashed off south Vietnam, but those reports have been denied, with the plane listed as 'missing'.
The Vietnamese Navy confirmed it detected the aircraft's emergency locator signal 153 miles south of Phu Quoc island in the South China sea.
Admiral Ngo Van Phat told the Vietnamese newspaper Tuoi Tre that radar showed the aircraft had crashed into the sea off the southern tip of Vietnam, close to the border with Cambodia.
The paper later reported the Admiral qualifying his statement, saying the radar had revealed the presumed crash site.
Malaysian naval vessels saw no immediate sign of wreckage when they reached the maritime area off the country's northeast coast this morning, a senior rescue official said.
Malaysia has sent three maritime enforcement ships and a navy vessel to the area, backed by three helicopters, a Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency official said.
'Our aircraft asset spotted an orange speck in the sea where the last signal came from. We sent a vessel to search the area and it was confirmed that it was nothing,' he said.
The signal picked up by the Navy is believed to be the Emergency Locator Transmittor, which can be activated manually by the flight crew or automatically upon impact.
The route would have taken flight MH370, a B777-200 aircraft, across the Malaysian mainland in a north-easterly direction and then across the Gulf of Thailand.
An unconfirmed report on a flight tracking website said the aircraft had plunged 650ft and changed course shortly before all contact was lost.
