BANGKOK, March 12 -- The Thai navy's search and rescue mission in the Andaman Sea for a Malaysia Airlines plane gone missing since last Saturday has elapsed into a third day on Wednesday but found nothing as yet.

Third Navy Region commander Vice Adm. Tarathorn Kachitsuwan said on Wednesday the navy's HTMS Pattani fast patrol boat and a helicopter attached to it have not as yet located any piece of wreckage in the sea which might possibly be part of flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200ER, that vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

However, the Thai naval boat and its helicopter will continue to look for the missing Malaysian airliner from around Langkawi and Perlis islands to north of Sumatra island, according to the admiral.

The Thai navy's mission is being conducted in collaboration with the Malaysian and Indonesian navies since Monday in search of any flotsams which might possibly come from the Malaysian airliner with 239 passengers and crew members on board.

HTMS Pattani has expanded its maritime search area in the lower part of the Andaman Sea while a few other Thai navy ships plus a Dornier patrol plane are currently on stand-by at Pang-nga naval station in southern Thailand, Tarathorn said.

The Malaysian and Indonesian navies have conducted search and rescue missions in Malacca Strait between the Malaysian peninsula and Indonesia's Sumatra island, following reports that the airliner had been spotted on a radar screen to be headed back to the Malaysian capital after it had lost contact with ground control. The Malaysian authorities feared that might possibly have involved terrorist plots on the plane.