Three officials from the France's Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) who were involved in locating the disappeared Air France flight 447 five years ago, arrived in Kuala Lumpur today to assist with the search and rescue operation of the missing flight MH370.

The Transport ministry said the trio will share their expertise and knowledge based on their experience from the search for Air France Flight 447 which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while making its way from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris, France.

The incident that occurred on June 1, 2009, killed all 228 passengers in the aircraft.

Meanwhile, the ministry said the Royal Malaysian Navy and the Royal Malaysian Air Force will deploy their assets to the southern corridor.

Before this, the Malaysian government said the missing plane is likely to have been deliberately steered to a course that could have taken it anywhere from central Asia to the southern Indian Ocean.

“The Foreign Affairs Ministry has sent diplomatic notes to all countries along the northern and southern corridors as well as all countries from which we are requesting assistance.

“The diplomatic notes set out the specific support and assistance required, including radar and satellite information, Land, sea and aerial search operations, search and rescue action plans for relevant countries and details of any information required from Malaysia,” the ministry said in a press statement today.

The ministry added that the number of countries involved in the search and rescue operation has increased from 14 to 26.

“These countries are Malaysia, Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, China, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Turkmenistan, UAE, UK, US, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.”

The aircraft was scheduled to land at Beijing International Airport at 6.30am local Beijing time on March 8.

Subang Air Traffic Control reported that it lost contact at 2.40am (local Malaysia time) on the same day and until today, it has not been found.