Fishermen to assist search and rescue of MH370

Fishermen with 1,788 fishing vessels in Kelantan and Terengganu have offered to help in the search and rescue of the missing MH370 aircraft.

Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri said the fishermen will keep a look out and report anything unusual to the authorities when they are out on their usual fishing rounds.

"The fishermen may not have sophisticated equipment, but they know the sea well because that's where their livelihood is," he said at the Everly Hotel, after meeting family members who were waiting for updates on the MH370 which went missing on Saturday.

Ismail added that he has also spoken to his counterparts in Indonesia and Thailand, and their fishermen have also expressed their intention to assist in anyway they can.

He said he had also discussed this with acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and he too had welcomed the assistance by the fishermen.

MH370, a code share flight with China Southern Airlines, left KLIA for Beijing at 12:41am Saturday morning.

All communication with the plane was lost at 2:40am and no distress signal or call was received.

The flight had registered 239 passengers, 38 of them Malaysian. It was scheduled to arrive at Beijing International Airport at 6:30am local time, Saturday.