1st LD: Airplane with 9 aboard missing in rescue mission in Vietnam: official

A CASA aircraft with nine people aboard lost contact early on Thursday afternoon while carrying out rescue mission in waters off northern Hai Phong city in Vietnam, an official from the National Committee for Search and Rescue told Xinhua on phone.

The number of nine people aboard has been confirmed by the committee, instead of the previous report of eight people.

The aircraft was carrying out searching mission for the SU-30 fighter jet which went missing Tuesday morning.

The CASA aircraft lost contact when it was flying over Bach Long Vi water area in Hai Phong (some 90 km east of capital Hanoi), the source told Xinhua, adding that searching work is underway.

Earlier on Tuesday morning, a Russian-made SU-30 fighter jet of Vietnam air forces with two pilots aboard disappeared from radar screen while carrying out a training mission offshore Vietnam's central Nghe An province, some 260 km south of capital Hanoi.

One of the two pilot was rescued by local fishermen on Wednesday while the other pilot remains missing.

According to the Ministry of Defense on its website, on Thursday, the searching area for the SU-30 and the missing pilot was extended. Equipment specialized for detecting plane's black box have been deployed.

A total of 1,564 people in navy, coast guard, border guard, air defense-air forces, Military Zone 4 and fishermen as well as 102 ships and five aircraft have been joining the search and rescue, which has stepped into the third day.

So far, there has no sign of human or plane, said the MoD.

Vietnam has bought as many as 32 Russian-made Su-30 fighter jets. This is the first made-public accident with the SU-30 fighters in Vietnam, according to local VNExpress online newspaper on Thursday. Enditem