Malaysia Airlines flight Boeing 777-200ER from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing lost contact with air traffic controllers two hours after take-off, early Saturday. The plane was carrying 239 passengers including 2 infants and crew members and was expected to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m. local time (17:30 EST). Vietnamese state media claimed that a senior naval officer said the aircraft crashed off Vietnam's southern island.
Tuoi Tre, a Vietnamese daily, quoted the country's High Command of Navy, who said that the plane went down in the waters between Vietnam and Malaysia, some 153 nautical miles (300km) off Tho Chu Island in Kien Giang Province.
But, Hishamuddin Hussein, the transport minister of Malaysia, said that there were no signs of a plane wreckage. "We are doing everything in our power to locate the plane, and doing everything we can to ensure every possible angle has been addressed," he told reporters near the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, reports Reuters.
"We are looking for accurate information from the Malaysian military. They are waiting for information from the Vietnamese side."
In a statement issued earlier today, Malaysia Airlines confirmed that the flight MH370 lost contact with Subang Air Traffic Control. "There has been speculation that the aircraft has landed at Nanming. We are working to verify the authenticity of the report and others," the company said. The airlines informed that passengers were from 14 different nationalities, with Chinese being the majority.
"The flight lost all contact and radar signal one minute before it entered Vietnam's air traffic control," Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese army, said in a statement issued by the government, reports the Associated Press.
Experts speculate that the plane is most probably lost on ground as the fuel could not last for long. It is 12 hours since the plane last lost contact. "It couldn't possibly be in the air because it would have run out of oil by now," Shukor Yusof, an aviation analyst at S&P Capital IQ told AP. "It's either on the ground somewhere, intact, or possibly it has gone down in the water."
A search and rescue mission by China, Vietnam and Malaysia is being conducted to locate the plane.
Families worried:
Relatives are in tears and have gathered at the Beijing and Kuala Lumpur airports after news of missing Malaysia Airlines broke out. Hamid Ramlan, whose daughter and son-in-law were onboard, told the Agence France-Presse in Kuala Lumpur that the couple was off to a holiday in Beijing. "My wife is crying. Everyone is sad. My house has become a place of mourning. This is Allah's will. We have to accept it. But we will from tonight hold special prayers for Allah's help. I want to see my daughter and her husband who were on the flight to Beijing for a holiday," he said.
"There was no premonition that something bad will happen. I drove them to the airport. We hugged and my daughter was so happy to go on the trip. Being a policeman over 33 years, this is my worst day," he added.
Relatives and friends of the passengers were taken to Lido Hotel, near Beijing airport, where they demanded some information from the officials. "They should have told us something before now," a man in his thirties from northern Chinese city of Tianjin told AFP.
