Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris in 2009. It disappeared off the radar after two hours taking off on March 8. — Photo infonet.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — VNRedSat-1, Viet Nam's first optical earth-observing satellite, traversed Tho Chu island at 11a.m., March 11, capturing images of the area where the Malaysian Airlines plane is suspected to go missing on March 8.

The information was provided by Chu Xuan Huy from the Centre for Control and Exploitation of small satellite under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST).

The photos were captured for an hour in an area with a length ranging from 80 to 160 kilometres and a width of 17.5 kilometres. The satellite can detect and take photos of objects more than 2.5 centimetres in size.

Satellite VNRedSat-1, launched in 2013, captured photos of areas surrounding Tho Chu island where the Malaysian Airlines plane is suspected to go missing. — Photo dantri.com.vn

The photos will be transmitted to the centre at midnight on March 11.

After receiving the news of the missing Malaysian jet, VAST cooperated with the National Remote Sensing Agency under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to capture photos of all the suspected areas. The results will be sent to the rescue teams to offer them more information in assisting their search efforts.

VNRedSat-1 was launched into orbit on May 7, 2013, to monitor natural resources, the environment, and potential disasters. — VNS