Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 Missing

[Aviafora Newsdesk]

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China is worried over the missing Malaysian flight scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Saturday morning, with search and rescue launched.

A flight from Malaysia to Beijing has lost contact, China's Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) confirmed Saturday.

The B777-200 aircraft departed Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur at 00:41 a.m. Saturday, and was expected to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m. the same day, according to Malaysia Airlines.

The CAAC confirmed the flight number was MH370, which carries 239 people, including 12 crew members and about 160 Chinese passengers. So far, the flight hasn't contacted Chinese air traffic management department or entered China's air traffic control area.

The flight lost contact and its radar signal at 01:20 a.m. Saturday when flying over the Ho Chi Minh air traffic control area in Vietnam.

The Malaysia Airlines said on its website that the company is trying to locate the flight with emergency rescue teams.

A Vietnamese rescue official denied that the signal of the missing Malaysian plane has been detected.


A Malaysian passenger plane carrying 239 people, including 227 passengers and 12 crew members, has lost contact with air traffic control after leaving Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, the carrier said Saturday. This undated file photo from the internet shows a Malaysia Airlines' Boeing 777 passenger plane

Pham Hien, director of the Vietnam's maritime search and rescue coordination center zone 3, told Xinhua Saturday that the information that the signal of the plane has been detected at some 120 nautical miles southwest of Vietnam's southernmost Ca Mau province is incorrect.

"We have no such equipment for positioning," Hien told Xinhua.

The CAAC demanded its air traffic management office to keep in touch with the Malaysian part, and ordered the Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) to comfort relatives and friends waiting anxiously for arrival of missing flight.

Chuang Ken Fei, a Malaysian, had waited for his two friends in the Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport for over 3 hours.

"Staff at the airport told me the flight did not take off, but I can see from my mobile application that the aircraft was in the air," Chuang said.

The BCIA has formed an emergency group to deal with the incident.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Saturday that China is very worried over a Beijing-bound plane that has lost contact with air traffic control.

"The news is very disturbing. We hope everyone on the plane is safe," said Wang.

A press conference will be held in Beijing by the Malaysia Airlines.

Yin Zhuo, a CPPCC National Committee member, said that China must enhance its search and rescue capacity on the sea, which is still not strong enough.

Related:

China launches emergency mechanism after Malaysian flight carrying 160 Chinese lost contact

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China has launched an emergency mechanism after a flight carrying some 160 Chinese lost contact with air controllers earlier Saturday.

"We are very worried after learning the news. We are trying to get in touch with relevant parties to check it out," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a written statement on Saturday morning.

Malaysian passenger plane with 239 people aboard loses contact with air traffic control, including 160 Chinese nationals

KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 (Xinhua) -- A Malaysian passenger plane carrying 239 people, including 227 passengers and 12 crew members, has lost contact with air traffic control after leaving Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, the carrier said Saturday.

Malaysia Airlines said flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200, lost touch with Subang Air Traffic Control around 02:40 a.m. local time Saturday morning (1840 GMT Friday).

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/wo..._133170795.htm

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Expecting the worst: Malaysia 370

The search for a commercial jetliner that seemingly vanished without warning between Malaysia and Vietnam continued into the night as dark fell on Asia, officials said.

Nobody knows what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, other than air traffic controllers lost track of it not long after it left Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, on its way to Beijing


A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 similar to that which is missing

The families and loved ones of the 239 passengers and crew aboard expected the worst as they awaited any significant development.

The biggest clue so far is traces of oil that a Vietnamese plane spotted while flying over the search area. The oil slicks are between 6 and 9 miles long and are suspected to be from the missing plane, the Vietnam government's official news agency reported. The traces of oil were found about 90 miles south of Tho Chu Island, the report said.

In the meantime, the search area is being expanded and efforts to locate the plane will continue overnight, said Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of civil aviation in Malaysia.

The area of focus has been in the South China Sea, where the Malaysian airspace and Vietnamese airspace meet.
"We have no idea where this aircraft is right now," Malaysia Airlines Vice President of Operations Control Fuad Sharuji said on CNN's "AC360."

Bits and pieces of information have begun to form, but it remains unclear how they fit into the bigger picture, if at all.
For instance, after the airline released a manifest, Austria denied that one of its citizens was onboard the flight as the list stated. The Austrian citizen was safe and sound, and his passport had been stolen two years ago, Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Weiss told CNN.

Similarly, Italy's foreign ministry confirmed that no Italians were onboard MH370, even though an Italian was listed on the manifest. Malaysian officials said they were aware of reports that the Italian's passport was also stolen, but had not confirmed it.
A U.S. intelligence official said authorities are aware of reporting about lost or stolen passports used by passengers on the missing flight.

"No nexus to terrorism yet," the official said, "although that's by no means definitive. We're still tracking."

Malaysian authorities reiterated during a news conference that they are not ruling anything out regarding the missing aircraft.
China, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia were conducting search and rescue operations south of Tho Chu island in the South China Sea, reported Xinhua, China's official news agency. Ships, helicopters and airplanes are being utilized.

Officials appeared resigned to accepting the worst outcome.

"I'd just like to say our thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families," Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said during a news conference.

More than half the passengers were Chinese nationals.

Relatives of the 154 Chinese nationals on board gathered Saturday at a hotel complex in the Lido district of Beijing as a large crowd of reporters gathered outside.

"My son was only 40 years old," one woman wailed as she was led inside. "My son, my son. What am I going to do?"

Family members were kept in a hotel conference room, where media outlets had no access. Most of the family members have so far refused to talk to reporters.

The Boeing 777-200 departed Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12:41 a.m. and was expected to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m., a 2,300-mile (3,700 kilometer) trip. It never arrived.

The plane carried 227 passengers, including five children under five years old, and 12 crew members, the airline said. Air traffic control in Subang, in Malaysia, had last contact with the plane.

At the time of its disappearance, the Malaysia Airlines plane was carrying about 7.5 hours of fuel, an airline official said.
The passengers are of 14 nationalities, the airline said.

Among the passengers there were 154 people from China or Taiwan; 38 Malaysians, and three U.S. citizens.

The airline's website said the flight was piloted by a veteran, Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a 53-year-old Malaysian, has 18,365 total flying hours and joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981, the website said. The first officer is Fariq Ab.Hamid, 27, a Malaysian with a total of 2,763 flying hours. He joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007.

"It doesn't sound very good," retired American Airlines Capt. Jim Tilmon told CNN's "AC360." He noted that the route is mostly overland, which means that there would be plenty of antennae, radar and radios to contact the plane.

"I've been trying to come up with every scenario that I could just to explain this away, but I haven't been very successful."

He said the plane is "about as sophisticated as any commercial airplane could possibly be," with an excellent safety record.

"The lack of communications suggests to me that something most unfortunate has happened," said Mary Schiavo, former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation, in an interview with CNN International.

"But that, of course, does not mean that there are not many persons that need to be rescued and secured. There's still a very urgent need to find that plane and to render aid," she said.

An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 carrying 291 passengers struck a seawall at San Francisco International Airport in July 2013, killing three people and wounding dozens more. It's unknown if mechanical failure was involved.

Several nations launched search and rescue efforts.

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) has deployed one aircraft and three ships in a search-and-rescue operation following the disappearance of the plane. The Malaysian government says its navy is cooperating with the Vietnamese navy.

China's Xinhua news agency says the Chinese Coast Guard is sending orders to its on-duty vessels nearby to set out to the water where the plane incident likely occurred.

Malaysia Airlines said it was working with the authorities who have activated their search and rescue team to locate the aircraft.

The airline said the public can call +603 7884 1234 for further information.

Malaysia Airlines operates in Southeast Asia, East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and on the route between Europe and Australasia.

It has 15 of the Boeing 777-200 planes in its fleet, CNN's Richard Quest reported.

Part of the company is in the private sector, but the government owns most of it.

Malayan Airways Limited began flying in 1937 as an air service between Penang and Singapore. A decade later, it began flying commercially as the national airline.

In 1963, when Malaysia was formed, the airline was renamed Malaysian Airlines Limited.

Within 20 years, it had grown from a single aircraft operator into a company with 2,400 employees and a fleet operator.

If this aircraft has crashed with a total loss, it would the deadliest aviation incident since November 2001 when an American Airlines Airbus A300 crashed in Belle Harbor, Queens, shortly after takeoff from JFK Airport, killing 265 people, including five on the ground.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/08/wo...plane-missing/

[Aviafora Newsdesk]

MH370 Search: Satellites find field of over 100 items

Satellites monitoring the southern Indian Ocean for debris from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have located an area containing more than 100 objects.

Identified on 23 March the field, around 400km2, contains 122 items – some of them up to 23m in size, others around 1m.

“It must be emphasised that we cannot tell whether the potential objects are from MH370,” said acting Malaysian transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein, during a briefing today 26th March.

“Some of the objects appeared to be bright, possibly indicating solid materials.”

The area lies 2,557km west of Perth – from where the search operation for MH370 is being co-ordinated – and in close proximity to regions in which previous sightings have been reported by Australian and Chinese personnel.

Hishammuddin said the new images from the region were sourced from Airbus Defence & Space, and sent to the Malaysian Remote Sensing Agency.

“This is another new lead that will help direct the search operation,” he added. The search has been hampered by weather conditions but the satellites have been able to photograph the ocean surface through gaps in cloud.

Several aircraft and vessels, from various countries, remain engaged in the search for the missing Boeing 777-200ER which vanished while en route to Beijing on 8 March.

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/art...ems-397433/

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