ABOARD JINGGANGSHAN WARSHIP, March 12 -- Chinese amphibious landing ship Kunlunshan arrived early Wednesday in the Gulf of Thailand to start its mission, bringing the total Chinese search and rescue vessels for the missing Malaysian airliner to eight.

Kunlunshan, with a 50-strong marine corps, about 10 assault boats and rubber dinghies and two helicopters aboard, started to search northwest of the gulf, expanding the search area to 5000 square miles (about 17000 square km). Naval vessel Jingganshang arrived early Tuesday in the new area, but has so far found no trace of the flight MH 370.

Jinggangshan, which cruised into position one day earlier, searched through the night for the plane, employing all its equipment, including radar and optical tracking and infrared night-vision scope, as well as recieving messages from other vessels nearby.

The whereabouts remained unknown of the ill-fated MH 370 jet, which suddenly vanished from radar early Saturday morning while carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.