Chinese warships take MH370 search to Strait of Malacca

Chinese vessels continued their search for the missing Malaysian airliner MH370 on Saturday, with two of them heading for the Strait of Malacca.

Haikou Missile Destroyer is estimated to arrive at the east of the Strait of Malacca later Saturday, after searching for the missing MH370 in the Gulf of Thailand for more than 70 hours.

It left for Malacca late Friday and will work with China's patrol ship Haixun 31.

Another vessel, Yongxingdao, equipped with underwater robots and rescue boats, will also move towards the Strait of Malacca after it finishes its search in the east of the Gulf of Thailand.

Other Chinese warships continued to broaden the search area to the southeast of the Gulf of Thailand, combing a total of 5,100 square nautical miles (about 17,400 square km).

Warships Jinggangshan, Kunlunshan (amphibious trransport dock), and Mianyang (missile frigate) have so far searched a sea area of 2,400 square nautical miles (about 8,200 square km).

The multinational hunt for the Boeing 777 aircraft, which mysteriously disappeared from radar early morning on March 8 while carrying 239 people en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, entered its eighth day on Saturday. No solid leads on its whereabouts have yet been found.