Vietnam wants misinformation removed from MH370 doc

At a press conference Thursday, deputy spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pham Thu Hang described assumptions made in the film “MH370: The Plane That Disappeared” as “untrue, baseless and inaccurate reflections of Vietnam’s efforts.”

Hang went on to say that the documentary ignored official conclusions made by local authorities and had caused “frustration among the Vietnamese populace.”

The film about the fate of flight MH370 inaccurately asserted that Vietnam did not cooperate in international efforts to search for the missing plane.

Hang pointed out that Vietnamese authorities had promptly deployed response teams while cooperating with Malaysia and other countries in the sharing of information pertaining to search and rescue operations. The deputy spokeswoman also said Vietnam had gone to lengths to support foreign reporters covering news of the aircraft’s disappearance.

“Vietnam’s efforts at the time were recognized by the international community, as well as both the domestic and foreign press,” Hang said.

“We ask the company that produced the film and the filmmakers [to remove or modify information] to accurately reflect Vietnam’s contribution to the search and rescue efforts for Malaysia’s flightMH370 aircraft.”

The Boeing 777-200ER aircraft – which flew as Malaysia Airlines flight number MH370 – was carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, when it lost contact with the ground less than an hour after taking off.

Following news of the missing plane, Vietnam deployed search and rescue forces, including 10 ships and 11 planes. Vietnamese forces scoured a sea area spanning over 100,000 km2 for over a week, but did not find any traces of the plane. Vietnam then brought its efforts to a close and asked foreign search and rescue forces to do the same and leave Vietnam’s territorial waters.

After unsuccessful search efforts, the Malaysian government called off its operations on January 1, 2015 and declared that all of the plane’s 239 passengers and crew members had likely perished.

The cause of the plane’s disappearance has yet to be ascertained.