#MalaysiaAirlines, #MH370, #PrayForMH370
Malaysia signals missing plane has crashed
A member of a charity group, who was invited by Malaysia Airlines to comfort the relatives of passengers of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, speaks to journalists at a hotel in Beijing March 9, 2014. Photo: Reuters/Jason Lee |
Malaysia Airlines said it was "fearing the worst" on Sunday for a
plane carrying 239 people that went missing more than 24 hours ago, as
the government said it was investigating four passengers who may have
held false identity documents.
There were no reports of bad weather and no sign of why Flight
MH370 would have vanished from radar screens off the coast of Vietnam
about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing
early on Saturday morning.
European officials said it appeared two people on board were using
stolen passports and Malaysian Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein
said authorities were also checking the identities of two other
passengers. "All the four names are with me," said Hishamuddin, who is also
defense minister. "I have indicated to our intelligence agencies and I
have also spoken to international intelligence agencies for assistance."
He said help was also being sought from the U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI). However, an attack was only one of the
possibilities being investigated. "We are looking at all possibilities," he said. "We cannot jump the gun. Our focus now is to find the plane."
The Chinese official Xiamen Daily reported that one of the
passengers who was supposed to be on the flight, according to the
manifest, was at home in China. The name on the passport and the
passport number did not match, according to the newspaper.
It was not immediately clear if the Chinese person's identity was among those being investigated.
There were no confirmed signs of the plane or any wreckage on
Sunday, well over 24 hours after it went missing. Search operations
continued through the night, officials said.
"In fearing for the worst, a disaster recovery management
specialist from Atlanta, USA, will be assisting Malaysia Airlines in
this crucial time," the airline said in a statement.
STOLEN PASSPORTS
Vietnamese naval boats sent from the holiday island of Phu Quoc
patrolled stretches of the Gulf of Thailand, searching for any wreckage,
scouring the area where an oil slick was spotted by patrol jets just
before nightfall on Saturday.
"Our two rescue boats have approached the two oil spills since 3
a.m. today but we haven't found any sign of the Malaysian plane yet.
Other boats are ready to go to support if needed," Admiral Ngo Van Phat
told Reuters.
There were no indications of sabotage nor claims of an attack. But
the passenger manifest issued by the airline included the names of two
Europeans - Austrian Christian Kozel and Italian Luigi Maraldi - who,
according to their foreign ministries, were not on the plane.
A foreign ministry spokesman in Vienna said: "Our embassy got the
information that there was an Austrian on board. That was the passenger
list from Malaysia Airlines. Our system came back with a note that this
is a stolen passport."
Austrian police had found the man safe at home. The passport was
stolen two years ago while he was travelling in Thailand, the spokesman
said. The foreign ministry in Rome said no Italian was on the plane
either, despite the inclusion of Maraldi's name on the list. His mother,
Renata Lucchi, told Reuters his passport was lost, presumed stolen, in
Thailand in 2013.
U.S. and European security officials said that there was no proof
of foul play and there could be other explanations for the use of stolen
passports.
A Malaysian official with knowledge of the investigation said the
passengers being checked had all bought their tickets through China
Southern Airlines, which was code-sharing the flight with Malaysia
Airlines, the official said.
Passengers on board the flight included 20 employees of Austin,
Texas-based chip maker Freescale Semiconductor Ltd. Twelve of the
employees were from Malaysia and eight from China, the company said in a
statement.
NO MAYDAY
The 11-year-old Boeing 777-200ER, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent
engines, took off at 12:40 a.m. (11.40 a.m. ET Friday) from Kuala Lumpur
International Airport when it went missing without a distress call.
Aboard were 227 passengers and 12 crew.
Flight MH370 last had contact with air traffic controllers 120
nautical miles off the east coast of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu.
Flight tracking website flightaware.com showed it flew northeast after
takeoff, climbed to 35,000 ft and was still climbing when it vanished
from tracking records.
A crash would likely mark the 777's second fatal incident in less
than a year, and its deadliest since entering service 19 years ago. 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. Paul Hayes, director of safety at Flightglobal Ascend aviation
consultancy, said the flight would normally have been at a routine
stage, having reached initial cruise altitude.
"Such a sudden disappearance would suggest either that something is
happening so quickly that there is no opportunity to put out a mayday,
in which case a deliberate act is one possibility to consider, or that
the crew is busy coping with what whatever has taken place," he told
Reuters.
A large number of planes and ships from several countries were
scouring the area where the plane last made contact, about halfway
between Malaysia and the southern tip of Vietnam.
"The search and rescue operations will continue as long as
necessary," Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told reporters. He said
his country had deployed 15 air force aircraft, six navy ships and
three coastguard vessels.
Besides the Vietnamese vessels, China and the Philippines also sent
ships to the region to help, while the United States, the Philippines
and Singapore dispatched military planes. China also put other ships and
aircraft on standby.
"BIG RED FLAG"
The disappearance of the plane is 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 and wreckage was found only
two days later.
John Goglia, a former board member of the National Transportation
Safety Board, the U.S. agency that investigates plane crashes, said the
lack of a distress call suggested that the plane either experienced an
explosive decompression or was destroyed by an explosive device.
"It had to be quick because there was no communication," Goglia
said. He said the false identities of the two passengers was "a big red
flag". If there were passengers on board with stolen passports, it was not clear how they passed through security checks.
International police body Interpol maintains a database of more
than 39 million travel documents reported lost or stolen by 166
countries, and says on its website that this enables police, immigration
or border control officers to check the validity of a suspect document
within seconds. No comment was immediately available from the
organization. - Reuters
Soruce: Thanhnien News
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