BANGKOK, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Thai navy Chief of Staff Tawewuth Pongsapipatt said Monday that the navy's search for the missing Malaysian jet has resumed after being suspended on Saturday.

Since Sunday, the navy has sent a Super Lynx-300 helicopter and a Dornier DO-228 patrol plane to search an area about 50 nautical miles off the Phuket island for traces of the missing Boeing 777- 200 plane of flight MH370 with 239 people aboard, Tawewuth said.

The navy's search operation kicked off last Monday, involving two patrol planes and a patrol vessel with a helicopter on board. It was temporarily suspended on Saturday following Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's update that the missing jetliner was diverted to one of two possible directions.

According to Najib, new data have been uncovered on the possible flight path of MH370 that point to two new corridors, including a northern corridor stretching approximately from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand as well as a second southern one estimated from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

Once the Malaysian government specifies the search scope and makes new requests for assistance, two vessels on stand-by will immediately start search over the Andaman Sea and three others over the Gulf of Thailand, Tawewuth said.

The navy has also prepared a nine-member diving team and a three-member medical team, he added.