HANOI, March 10 -- Vietnamese navy ship salvaged a floating lifeboat-like object Monday but confirmed it had nothing to do with a missing Malaysian plane.

Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese army, told reporters that the object was a mossy-covered cable box.

Earlier, Vietnam sent a Mi 171 helicopter and a DHC6 seaplane from southern Phu Quoc island to the location where the object was spotted at the request of Malaysia.

The floating object was located at 081650 North (Latitude) and 105110 East (Longitude), or 130 km southwest of Vietnam's Tho Chu island.

Vietnam has set up a command for search and rescue operation on Phu Quoc island.

The whereabouts of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 operated by a Boeing 777-200 with 12 crew members and 227 passengers including 154 Chinese on board has not been known since it lost contact with air traffic control early on Saturday morning on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, though an international search operation was intensified and widened throughout a large area at sea where it vanished from radar screen.