Plane Carrying 239 People Went Missing 2 Hours After Take Off

Malaysia Airlines, Malaysia’s flag carrier, in a statement said flight MH370 disappeared at 2:40 am local time on Saturday (1840 GMT Friday), carrying 227 passengers (152 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, 12 Indonesians, 7 Australians, 3 US citizens, 3 from France, 2 passengers each from New Zealand, Ukraine, and Canada, and 1 each from Italy, Taiwan, the Netherlands and Austria, and 2 infants) and 12 crew members, report said.

The flight had been expected to arrive at Beijing at 6:30 am local time on Saturday (2230 GMT Friday). The plane took off from Kuala Lumpur.

CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, in a statement said “We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts with flight MH370 which departed from Kuala Lumpur at 12.41 am earlier this morning bound for Beijing”.

China’s Xinhua news agency reported radar contact was lost with the plane while it was nearing Vietnamese airspace, traveling at 35,000 feet.

“There has been speculation that the aircraft has landed at Nanming [China]. We are working to verify the authenticity of the report and others,” the statement said.

It added “Malaysia Airlines is currently working with the authorities, who have launched their search and rescue effort to locate the aircraft”.

“We still need to confirm everything,” Lai Xuan Thanh, chief of Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, reportedly said adding that
“[There were] no reports of bad weather in the region at the time of the signal loss.”

The airline will provide regular updates on the situation.

Meanwhile, the public may contact +603 7884 1234 for further info.
Sources: Aljazeera, The Guardian 

Photo above: Flight board at Beijing airport shows missing Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur(Credit: breakingnews.com)