Malaysia expects ‘jet oil slick’ analysis Monday – official

An oil slick in the seas between Vietnam and Malaysia is seen from the air Sunday March 9, 2014. This is one of the two oil slicks Vietnamese air force spotted Saturday which authority suspected could be from the Malaysian airliner which disappeared Saturday on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. AP

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysian authorities expect to complete by Monday afternoon a lab analysis that could indicate whether an oil slick at sea came from a missing passenger jet, an official said.

Flight MH370 went missing over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early Saturday.

“We are still waiting for results. I expect to have the answer by this afternoon,” Amdan Kurish, director general of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, told AFP.

He said the oil samples being reviewed were collected from a slick two kilometres (1.25 miles) long in waters about 185 kilometres north off Malaysia’s east coast state of Kelantan.

The slick was the largest of several in the area, he said. It was just south of the point where air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane.

Vietnamese authorities say they are investigating after one of its search planes spotted possible debris off Vietnam’s southwestern tip.

No confirmed evidence of the plane’s fate has yet been found, leaving authorities stumped and anguished family members demanding answers.

Fears of a terror attack have surfaced after it was revealed that at least two passengers boarded the plane with stolen passports – one from Italy and one from Austria.