Updates – Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 goes missing

Wikipedia carries the following update of the tragic situation involving Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members:

“The flight departed terminal M at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 0:43 Malaysia time but two hours later it disappeared from ATC radar and communication with the Subang Air Traffic Control Centre ceased.[9][6] At the time of its disappearance, the plane was carrying about 7.5 hours worth of fuel.[10] The airline confirmed that they had conducted search and rescue operations.[6]

“China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported that radar signal and contact with the plane was lost over Vietnamese airspace, in Ho Chi Minh air traffic control area.[11][10] Relevant authorities in China as well as Thailand have informed their Malaysian counterparts that the aircraft has not crossed their airspace.[12]

“According to Admiral Ngo Van Phat from the Vietnam People’s Navy, military radar lost the plane 153 miles south of Phú Quốc in the Gulf of Thailand.[1][13] Two Chinese ships were deployed to the South China Sea as part of the search.[14]

For latest updates and information of the passengers and pilots, check out the Wikipedia page here.

You can see a ‘live flight tracking’ of the flight here.

And this is the latest statement from Malaysia Airlines:

Saturday, March 08, 04:20 PM MYT +0800 Malaysia Airlines MH370 Flight Incident – 4th Media Statement

Sepang, 8 March 2014: Malaysia Airlines is still unable to establish any contact or determine the whereabouts of flight MH370. Earlier today, Subang ATC had lost contact with the aircraft at 2.40am. The last known position of MH370 before it disappeared off the radar was 065515 North (longitude) and 1033443 East (latitude).

We are still trying to locate the current location of the flight based on the last known position of the aircraft. We are working with the International search and rescue teams in trying to locate the aircraft. So far, we have not received any emergency signals or distress messages from MH370. We are working with authorities and assure that all sources are deployed to assist with the search and rescue mission.

The passenger manifest will not be released until all families of the passengers have been informed. The flight was carrying a total number of 239 passengers and crew – comprising 227 passengers (including 2 infants) and 12 crew members.

We are deploying our “Go Team” to Beijing which will depart Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 4.30pm with a team of caregivers and volunteers to assist the family members of the passengers.

The passengers are of 14 different nationalities. All crew on-board are Malaysians.

Please take note that the earlier statement did not include the number of Indian nationals. This was due to confusion between the country code of Indonesia and India.

The below table shows the latest number of passengers and their nationalities:-

Our focus now is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize our full support.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members.

The public may contact +603 7884 1234.

For media queries, kindly contact +603 8777 5698/ +603 8787 1276.

The airline will provide regular updates on the situation. There are many unvalidated reports out in the media and Malaysia Airlines strongly urges the media and the public at large to only report from official statements from Malaysia Airlines and the Government of Malaysia.