Oil slick off Malaysia not from missing plane, says official

The oil slick found in waters off Malaysia near the last known location of the missing Malaysian airliner is not from the aircraft, an official said today.

Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) eastern region enforcement chief First Admiral Nasir Adam said the result was sent to him from MMEA headquarters this afternoon.

Nasir said the oil was used for Tongkang (a light wooden boat used in South East Asia).

Tests on a sample of the oil slick found off the Kelantan coast revealed it was used for bunkering activities.

Officials at the operation coordinating centre in Sepang near here said this was confirmed by the Chemistry Department.

Yesterday, MMEA's search team had found a "yellowish" oil slick about 16 km long, 37 km south of the last point of contact of the Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Nasir, who led MMEA's third day of search and rescue operations, said they still could not find clues which could indicate the location of the missing Boeing 777-200.

He also confirmed that the MMEA had received a report from a civilian who claimed to have sighted what seemed like a plane flying low during the same time MH370 went missing.

"We have taken down his statement. The direction of where he claimed to have seen the aircraft is actually within the area covered by our search operations, and we have not seen any clues so far," Nasir was quoted as saying by the Malaysian Star newspaper.

The aircraft had 239 people aboard, including five Indians and one Indian-origin Canadian, when it went missing two days ago.