Debris from Vietnamese military rescue forces found

Thai Binh/Thanh Nhien News

Vietnamese military rescue forces have found debris from a Coast Guard plane that crashed into the sea Thursday with nine people while searching for an Air Force pilot missing from another crashed aircraft a few days earlier.

Ground workers push a Vietnam Coast Guard Casa aircraft in this file photo. Debris from a similiar Vietnamese Coast Guard plane with nine passengers on board was found. (Photo: Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP/Getty Images)

The turboprop-powered plane went off the radar at around 12:30 p.m. Thursday, about 44 nautical mile southwest of Bach Long Vi Island in the Gulf of Tonkin, which separates the country from China.

There has been no official comment the nine officers onboard the plane, which was piloted by Col. Le Kiem Toan, Commander of Brigade KQ918 of the air force.

Nguyen Huu Cuong, the other pilot aboard the Russian-made plane, was rescued by fishermen Wednesday.

A coast guard vessel reported on Thursday afternoon that it has found what could be parts of the fighter aircraft, including one wheel.

After the jet went missing, the Vietnamese air force has suspended the practice flights to be conducted by the same plane model.

The latest incidents follows a series of mishaps that hit the military in the past two years.

Two Soviet-era Su-22 fighter aircraft of the Vietnamese air force crashed into the East Sea during a training mission in April 2015. Both pilots died in the crash.

Two earlier crashes, which involved a Russian Mi-171 and US-built UH-1, killed 24 people.

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