Maritime Official: Oil Slicks Not from Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane

The missing Malaysia Airlines 777-200ER at Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2011

Oil slicks off the coast of Malaysia were not from the missing Malaysia Airlines 777 that disappeared over two days ago, officials reported on Monday.

Officials in Vietnam reported a 12-mile or 20-kilometer-long oil slick that originally appeared to be from jet fuel.  A maritime official from Malaysia said that lab tests showed that the oil is not, however, jet fuel.

First Admiral Datuk Nasir Adam of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency told reporters that “the result of the analysis is negative, the samples are not from MH370.”  He also said that the oil samples were found to have come from a ship.

Meanwhile, a new clue emerged early Monday when a pilot spotted a possible lifeboat in the Gulf of Thailand.  The Vietnam navy is sending a Mi 171 helicopter and DHC6 seaplane to investigate, according to the Xinhua news agency in China.

More than two days ago, the Boeing 777 disappeared from air-traffic control radar less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur Saturday morning.  Its last-known location was over on the Vietnam side of the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand.

(Photo: Laurent Errera)