oil slick
８日未明に消息を絶ったマレーシア航空３７０便ボーイング７７７━２００型機。ベトナムの国営メディアは同機が南シナ海に墜落したと伝えましたが．マレーシア当局はまだ確認していないと同報道を否定しています。
slickはすでにブログで「…を滑らか[つやつや]にする，[髪の毛など]を〈油・水などで〉なでつける」という動詞として採り上げられています。
cf. http://d.hatena.ne.jp/A30/20110120/1295533670
そして今回は名詞のslickです。slickには名詞で「滑らかな［すべすべした］場所；すべすべさせる物質」という意味がありますが，その他にoil slickで「（流出石油の）油膜」という意味があります（『プログレッシブ英和中辞典』小学館）。
航空機には乗客乗員合わせて２３９人が乗っていたようです。一刻も早い発見が求められます。（Koyamamoto）
Oil slick spotted in sea in search for missing Malaysian plane
Vietnam air force planes spot two oil slicks suspected to be from missing Malaysian Boeing 777 jet, as it emerges at least two passengers were travelling on stolen passports
The fate of flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing remains unclear more than 12 hours after air traffic controllers lost touch with the plane.
However, Vietnamese authorities said they had spotted a 14-mile long oil slick 120 miles off the coast of Cape Ca Mau - the most southerly point of Vietnam's mainland.
A Vietnamese government statement said the slicks were spotted late on Saturday off the southern tip of Vietnam and were each between six and nine miles long. There was no confirmation that the slicks were related to the missing plane, but the statement said they were consistent with the kinds that would be produced by the two fuel tanks of a crashed jetliner.
