Ho Chi Minh City, March 8 -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry on Saturday afternoon said right after receiving the information on the missing plane, Vietnamese authorities have actively coordinated with relevant agencies to verify the information and deploy search and rescue work.

Vietnam is about to send eight aircraft and nine marine rescue vessels to join the search and rescue work for the missing Malaysian Airlines plane, a source with the Ministry of National Defense told Xinhua.

The rescue vehicles will be deployed to the waters where the plane was feared to have crashed to help search for the plane.

Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200 with 239 passengers aboard, took off from Kuala Lumpur at 00:41 a.m. local time Saturday and was due to arrive in Beijing at 6:30 a.m. The aircraft reportedly lost contact at around 2:40 a.m.

The final reported position of MH370 before it disappeared was 065515 north longitude and 1033443 east latitude in the waters off Malaysia.

Earlier, Vietnam has already sent one aircraft and marine rescue vessels to search for the missing plane. The air force aircraft in the search operation has spotted two strips of substance that are suspected to be oil slicks from the missing plane on the surface of waters between Malaysia and Vietnam.

Deputy Transport Minister Pham Quy Tieu said Vietnamese rescuers are expected to arrive at the waters near the southern Phu Quoc Island where the oil leak was found.