Jet carrying 239 – including Americans – vanishes off Vietnam
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A relative of a passenger aboard the missing jet (left, in white) is sick with worry at Beijing International Airport after the plane carrying 239 vanished.Photo: Reuters
A Malaysia Airlines jetliner flying from Kuala Lampur to China with 239 people aboard — including several Americans — lost contact with air-traffic control early Saturday and remained missing more than 17 hours later.
The jet is presumed crashed, as it did not have enough fuel to stay aloft this long. 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.
Search teams across Southeast Asia using ships and planes scoured the seas between Malaysia and Vietnam on Saturday looking for traces of the missing plane.
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 Boeing 777-200 left Kuala Lampur at 12:41 a.m. local time and was expected to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m. the same day — but the plane dropped off radar screens while flying in Vietnamese airspace about two hours after takeoff.
Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said there was no indication that the pilots sent a distress signal. The fact that there was apparently no call for help suggests that whatever happened to the flight occurred quickly.
The plane “lost all contact and radar signal one minute before it entered Vietnam’s air traffic control,” said Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese army.
“At the moment we have no idea where this aircraft is,” Malaysia Airlines vice president Fuad Sharuj told CNN. “We tried to call this aircraft through various means.”
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Malaysian Airlines Group CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya addresses the media after the jet disappeared. The airline is notifying next in kin.Photo: AP
People waiting for family and friends at Beijing’s airport wept with fear for the passengers.
“They want us to go to the hotel. It cannot be good!” cried one woman, referring to how authorities asked relatives and friends of passengers to gather at a hotel near the airport to wait for news.
The 239 passengers include 12 crew members and two infants and included people from 14 different countries — including three adults and one infant from the United States.
“Our team is currently calling the next-of-kin of passengers and crew. Focus of the airline is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support,” Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said in a statement.
“Malaysia Airlines is currently working with the authorities who have activated their search-and-rescue team to locate the aircraft,” the airline said in a statement.
“It doesn’t sound very good,” retired American Airlines Capt. Jim Tilmon said on CNN, noting that the route is mostly over land, which means there would be plenty of ways to contact the pilots.
“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.”
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A message board at Beijing International Airport shows the missing flight MH370 as ‘delayed’ in red letters.Photo: Getty Images
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