Missing MH370: "Yellow floating object" not plane life raft - reports

The object has been identified as a moss-covered cap of a cable reel

KUALA LUMPUR - Vietnam's civil aviation body said they had retrieved a "yellow floating object," but it was not a plane life raft, reports AFP.

Civil Aviation Department (DCA) head Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said two ships had been dispatched to investigate the sighting of the "floating object" that could be a life raft, as it the hunt for the missing MH370 airplane continues.

"There was a report that we just received, that an aircraft had seen something like an inverted life raft," said Civil Aviation Department (DCA) head Azharuddin Abdul Rahman.

"We are contacting our counterparts, we are sending ships there to verify the object, the parts," he said.

"At the moment, we have not received any report on the matter. So we are still waiting for the report," he said.

Flight MH370 disappeared early Saturday morning with 239 people aboard. No distress signal was ever sent.

The plane's disappearance has led to an international search and rescue effort involving several countries and dozens of planes and ships, but so far no firm evidence of wreckage from the plane has been found.

In a later development,  Singapore's Straits Times tweeted that Vietnam's civil aviation body said they had retrieved the yellow floating object, but it was not a plane life raft.