China deploys ships to help Vietnam find missing coastguard plane
HANOI- China sent ships on Friday in response to a request from Vietnam to help find a coastguard plane that crashed with nine personnel aboard while looking for a missing fighter jet and pilot, Vietnam's defence ministry said.
The CASA turboprop plane went down on Thursday in the Gulf of Tonkin, between Vietnam's northern coastline and China's Hainan Island, where the rescue team had found some debris and personal items, the ministry said in a statement.
The Airbus-made plane was searching for a Sukhoi SU-30 MK2 fighter jet and a missing pilot that went off radar on Tuesday. One of the two fighter pilots was rescued from the sea the following day.
