Malaysia and Vietnam on Saturday led a
search for a Malaysia Airlines jet that has gone
missing over Southeast Asia, as fears mounted
over the fate of the 239 people aboard.
Vietnam authorities said contact with Flight MH370
was lost near its airspace, but its exact location
and what happened to it remained a mystery 12
hours after it slipped off air-traffic control screens.
Malaysia Airlines said the plane, on an overnight
flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, relayed no
distress signal, indications of rough weather, or
other signs of trouble.
“The plane lost contact near Ca Mau province
airspace as it was preparing to transfer to Ho Chi
Minh City air traffic control,” a statement on the
official Vietnamese government website said.
Its signal never appeared to Ho Chi Minh City
controllers, it said. Ca Mau province is in
southernmost Vietnam, next to the Cambodian
border.
Vietnam’s defence ministry has launched a search
for the plane, the statement added.
Malaysian authorities also dispatched a plane, two
helicopters and four vessels to search seas off its
east coast in the South China Sea, said Faridah
Shuib, a spokeswoman for the Malaysian Maritime
Enforcement Agency.
The Philippines said it was sending three navy
patrol boats and a surveillance plane to help
efforts.
- Contact lost two hours after take-off -
Contact was lost at 2:40 am Malaysian time (1840
GMT Friday), about two hours after take-off from
Kuala Lumpur International Airport, the carrier’s
CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said.
“Our focus now is to work with emergency
responders and authorities, and mobilise full
support,” he told a press conference in Malaysia.
“And our thoughts and prayers are with all affected
passengers and crew, and their family members.”
Screens at Beijing’s airport indicated at first that
the flight was “delayed”, but later updated its
status to “cancelled”.
Whatever happened to the flight, Indonesia-based
independent aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman said
the clock was ticking on a “24-hour golden
window” for search and rescue efforts.
“You can’t assume that there are no survivors, and
if there are any, it is absolutely crucial that they
are picked up within a day, or the chances of
survival drops significantly,” he said.
The Boeing 777-200 carried 227 passengers and
12 crew members, from 14 nationalities Ahmad
Jauhari said.
They included 153 Chinese nationals including an
infant, 38 Malaysians, and 12 Indonesians, he said.
Six Australians also were aboard, along with three
French nationals, and four Americans including an
infant.
Malaysia Airlines has a good safety record. Its
worst-ever crash occurred in 1977, when 93
passengers and seven crew perished in a hijacking
and subsequent crash in southern Malaysia.
The pilot of the missing flight MH370 is Captain
Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, who has flown for the
airline since 1981, the carrier said. Its first officer
Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, joined the airline in 2007.
The plane is more than 11 years old.
The flight path of the Kuala Lumpur-Beijing route
passes over the South China Sea and the
Indochinese peninsula before entering southern
Chinese airspace.
“This news has made us all very worried,” Chinese
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Beijing.
“We hope every one of the passengers is safe. We
are doing all we can to get more details.”
Chinese and Thai authorities have said the plane
did not enter their airspace.
- Distraught relatives -
The information vacuum regarding the flight
touched off a frenzy on social media, which saw
an outpouring of concern for passengers.
At Beijing airport where authorities have gathered
the passengers’ families at a nearby hotel, an AFP
journalist saw one woman enter the arrivals zone
and break down in tears. She was led away by
police.
At Kuala Lumpur International Airport, family
members looking sombre and distraught trickled in
to a designated waiting area for loved ones,
escorted by authorities.
“They gave us no information so far,” complained
one man, who said his niece and her husband
were on the flight for a one-week holiday in China.
Reporters were barred from entering the area.
The Boeing 777 also has a solid safety record, with
only a handful of incidents since its introduction in
the mid-1990s.
In July 2013, three people died when a Boeing
777-200 operated by South Korea’s Asiana
Airlines skidded off the runway upon landing at
San Francisco’s international airport after it clipped
a seawall before touching down.
“We’re closely monitoring reports on Malaysia
flight MH370. Our thoughts are with everyone on
board,” US-based Boeing said in a statement on
its Twitter feed.
An accident would be a huge blow for the carrier,
which has bled money for years as its struggles to
fend off competition from rivals such as fast-
growing AirAsia.
The flag carrier recorded its fourth straight
quarterly loss during the final three months of
2013, and warned of a “challenging” year ahead
due to intense competition.
It admitted in 2012 it was in “crisis”, forcing it to
implement a cost-cutting campaign centred on
slashing routes and other measures.
Analysts have said poor management, government
interference, and union resistance to reform of the
66-year-old airline have hampered its ability to
respond to intensifying competition in the industry.
(AFP)
search for a Malaysia Airlines jet that has gone
missing over Southeast Asia, as fears mounted
over the fate of the 239 people aboard.
Vietnam authorities said contact with Flight MH370
was lost near its airspace, but its exact location
and what happened to it remained a mystery 12
hours after it slipped off air-traffic control screens.
Malaysia Airlines said the plane, on an overnight
flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, relayed no
distress signal, indications of rough weather, or
other signs of trouble.
“The plane lost contact near Ca Mau province
airspace as it was preparing to transfer to Ho Chi
Minh City air traffic control,” a statement on the
official Vietnamese government website said.
Its signal never appeared to Ho Chi Minh City
controllers, it said. Ca Mau province is in
southernmost Vietnam, next to the Cambodian
border.
Vietnam’s defence ministry has launched a search
for the plane, the statement added.
Malaysian authorities also dispatched a plane, two
helicopters and four vessels to search seas off its
east coast in the South China Sea, said Faridah
Shuib, a spokeswoman for the Malaysian Maritime
Enforcement Agency.
The Philippines said it was sending three navy
patrol boats and a surveillance plane to help
efforts.
- Contact lost two hours after take-off -
Contact was lost at 2:40 am Malaysian time (1840
GMT Friday), about two hours after take-off from
Kuala Lumpur International Airport, the carrier’s
CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said.
“Our focus now is to work with emergency
responders and authorities, and mobilise full
support,” he told a press conference in Malaysia.
“And our thoughts and prayers are with all affected
passengers and crew, and their family members.”
Screens at Beijing’s airport indicated at first that
the flight was “delayed”, but later updated its
status to “cancelled”.
Whatever happened to the flight, Indonesia-based
independent aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman said
the clock was ticking on a “24-hour golden
window” for search and rescue efforts.
“You can’t assume that there are no survivors, and
if there are any, it is absolutely crucial that they
are picked up within a day, or the chances of
survival drops significantly,” he said.
The Boeing 777-200 carried 227 passengers and
12 crew members, from 14 nationalities Ahmad
Jauhari said.
They included 153 Chinese nationals including an
infant, 38 Malaysians, and 12 Indonesians, he said.
Six Australians also were aboard, along with three
French nationals, and four Americans including an
infant.
Malaysia Airlines has a good safety record. Its
worst-ever crash occurred in 1977, when 93
passengers and seven crew perished in a hijacking
and subsequent crash in southern Malaysia.
The pilot of the missing flight MH370 is Captain
Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, who has flown for the
airline since 1981, the carrier said. Its first officer
Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, joined the airline in 2007.
The plane is more than 11 years old.
The flight path of the Kuala Lumpur-Beijing route
passes over the South China Sea and the
Indochinese peninsula before entering southern
Chinese airspace.
“This news has made us all very worried,” Chinese
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Beijing.
“We hope every one of the passengers is safe. We
are doing all we can to get more details.”
Chinese and Thai authorities have said the plane
did not enter their airspace.
- Distraught relatives -
The information vacuum regarding the flight
touched off a frenzy on social media, which saw
an outpouring of concern for passengers.
At Beijing airport where authorities have gathered
the passengers’ families at a nearby hotel, an AFP
journalist saw one woman enter the arrivals zone
and break down in tears. She was led away by
police.
At Kuala Lumpur International Airport, family
members looking sombre and distraught trickled in
to a designated waiting area for loved ones,
escorted by authorities.
“They gave us no information so far,” complained
one man, who said his niece and her husband
were on the flight for a one-week holiday in China.
Reporters were barred from entering the area.
The Boeing 777 also has a solid safety record, with
only a handful of incidents since its introduction in
the mid-1990s.
In July 2013, three people died when a Boeing
777-200 operated by South Korea’s Asiana
Airlines skidded off the runway upon landing at
San Francisco’s international airport after it clipped
a seawall before touching down.
“We’re closely monitoring reports on Malaysia
flight MH370. Our thoughts are with everyone on
board,” US-based Boeing said in a statement on
its Twitter feed.
An accident would be a huge blow for the carrier,
which has bled money for years as its struggles to
fend off competition from rivals such as fast-
growing AirAsia.
The flag carrier recorded its fourth straight
quarterly loss during the final three months of
2013, and warned of a “challenging” year ahead
due to intense competition.
It admitted in 2012 it was in “crisis”, forcing it to
implement a cost-cutting campaign centred on
slashing routes and other measures.
Analysts have said poor management, government
interference, and union resistance to reform of the
66-year-old airline have hampered its ability to
respond to intensifying competition in the industry.
(AFP)
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