#MalaysiaAirlines, #MH370, #PrayForMH370
Malaysia Airlines plane missing, presumed crashed in South China Sea
(Reuters) - A
Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew went
missing over the South China Sea on Saturday, presumed crashed, as ships
and planes from countries closest to its flight path scoured a large
search area for any wreckage.
A relative (woman in white) of a passenger onboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cries as she talks on her mobile phone at the Beijing Capital International Airport March 8, 2014. |
Vietnamese state
media, quoting a senior naval official, had reported that the Boeing
777-200ER flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing had crashed off south
Vietnam. Malaysia's transport minister later denied any crash scene had
been identified.
"We are doing everything in our power to locate the plane. We
are doing everything we can to ensure every possible angle has been
addressed," Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein told reporters near
the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
"We
are looking for accurate information from the Malaysian military. They
are waiting for information from the Vietnamese side," he said. Vietnamese
Admiral Ngo Van Phat later qualified his earlier remarks about a crash
site having been identified and told Reuters he was referring to a
presumed location beneath the plane's flight path, using information
supplied by Malaysia.
A
crash, if confirmed, would likely mark the U.S.-built Boeing 777-200ER
airliner's deadliest incident since entering service 19 years ago. The
plane disappeared without giving a distress signal - a chilling echo of
an Air France flight that crashed into the South Atlantic on June 1,
2009, killing all 228 people on board. It vanished for hours before
wreckage was found.
Search
and rescue vessels from the Malaysian maritime enforcement agency
reached the area where the plane last made contact at about 4.30 p.m.
Singapore time (0830 GMT) but saw no immediate sign of wreckage, a
Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency told Reuters.
VANISHED AFTER REACHING 35,000 FEET
Flight
MH370, operating a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, last had contact with air
traffic controllers 120 nautical miles off the east coast of the
Malaysian town of Kota Bharu, Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad
Jauhari Yahya said in a statement read to an earlier news conference in
Kuala Lumpur.
There were no reports of bad weather in the area. The
airline said people from 14 nationalities were among the 227 passengers
- at least 152 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six
Australians, five Indians, four French and three Americans. A Chinese
infant and an American infant were also on board.
"The
Australian government fears the worst for those aboard missing Malaysia
Airlines flight MH370," a spokeswoman for Australia's Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade said.
Flight
tracking website flightaware.com showed the plane flew northeast over
Malaysia after takeoff and climbed to an altitude of 35,000 feet. The
flight vanished from the website's tracking records a minute later while
it was still climbing.
Malaysia
and Vietnam were conducting a joint search and rescue operation, while
China and the Philippines have sent ships to the South China Sea to
help. The Philippines also dispatched a military plane to help in the
search. China has also put other ships and aircraft on standby, said Transport Minister Yang Chuantang.
"EXTREMELY WORRIED"
Chinese
Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing before the initial
Vietnamese report that the plane had crashed that China was "extremely
worried" about the fate of the plane and those on board. "The news is
very disturbing. We hope everyone on the plane is safe," Wang said.
The flight was operating as a China Southern Airlines code share. The
flight left Kuala Lumpur at 12.21 a.m. (11.21 a.m. ET Friday) but no
trace had been found of the plane more than eight hours after it was due
to land in the Chinese capital at 6.30 a.m. (5.30 p.m. ET Friday) the
same day.
"We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts with flight MH370," Jauhari said. Malaysia Airlines has one of the best safety records among full-service carriers in the Asia-Pacific region.
It
identified the pilot of MH370 as Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a
53-year-old Malaysian who joined the carrier in 1981 and has 18,365
hours of flight experience. Chinese
state media said 24 Chinese artists and family members, who were in
Kuala Lumpur for an art exchange program, were aboard. The Sichuan
provincial government said Zhang Jinquan, a well-known calligrapher, was
on the flight.
If it is
confirmed that the plane crashed, the loss would mark the second fatal
accident involving a Boeing 777 in less than a year and by far the worst
since the jet entered service in 1995. An
Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-200ER crash-landed in San Francisco in July
2013, killing three passengers and injuring more than 180.
Boeing
said it was monitoring the situation but had no further comment. The
flight was operating as a China Southern Airlines codeshare. An
official at the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said the plane had
failed to check in as scheduled at 1721 GMT while it was flying over the
sea between Malaysia and Ho Chi Minh city.
Source: Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment