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 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.
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"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 codeshare.
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.
(Additional reporting by Anuradha Raghu in Kuala
Lumpur, Ben
Blanchard, Jonathan Standing and Natalie Thomas in Beijing, Martin
Petty in Hanoi, Alwyn Scott in New York, and Morag MacKinnon in
Perth; writing by Paul Tait; editing by Mark Bendeich)
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