Le Anh
The fighter jets belonging to Air Division 370 took off at 11:24 a.m. but lost signals at 11:35 a.m. in the waters north of Phu Quy Island, Vietnam News Agency reports.
Ta Minh Nhut, vice chairman of Binh Thuan Province’s island district of Phu Quy, told the Daily Thursday that signals of the jets were lost at noon.
Major general Do Minh Tuan, deputy commander of the Vietnam Air Force, was quoted by Tuoi Tre as saying that the two jets took off at a military airport in Ninh Thuan Province’s Phan Rang City Thursday morning and lost contact with the ground control unit during a training mission. The status of the pilots of the missing jets had remained unknown as of Thursday afternoon but rescuers had spotted four backup oil tanks.
The pilots were identified as lieutenant colonel Le Van Nghia on the plane with registered number 5857 and Nguyen Anh Tu on the craft with registered number 5863.
Searches for the two missing pilots and jets were suspended last night due to darkness and will resume today. But ships of the naval, border guard and rescue forces are still in the search area where the jets lost contact, around eight nautical miles north of Phu Quy Island, Tuan told Tuoi Tre at 7:50 p.m. Thursday.
According to Tuan, military planes will fly to the site today, coordinating with the search forces. The top priority is to find and rescue the pilots.
Đăng ký: VietNam News