As you’re probably aware Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 lost contact during its flight between Kuala Lumpur International and Beijing Capital Airport.
The plane – a Boeing 777-200 (registration (9M-MRO) had with 227 passengers and 12 crew aboard.
Last contact with the aircraft was about 120 mile northeast of Kota Bharu (Malaysia), over the Gulf of Thailand, with contact lost at 02.40 local time. The last known position of MH370 before it disappeared off the radar was 065515 North (longitude) and 1033443 East (latitude).
By this point, the fuel aboard the plane would had been exhausted, and no reports of it have been made of it landing.
No distress call was made, nor was the emergency locator transmitter activated (or any other signal from the aircraft)
Search teams have been dispatched by air and sea with international resources in the region (China, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines) and internationally (USA) with 15 planes and 9 sea vehicles.
The latest PR from Malaysia Airlines is below (with the passenger manifest released):
Sepang, 8 March 2014: The families of all passengers on board MH370 are being informed. The flight was carrying a total number of 239 passengers and crew – comprising 227 passengers (including 2 infants) and 12 crew members.
An international search and rescue mission was mobilized this morning. At this stage, our search and rescue teams from Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam have failed to find evidence of any wreckage.
The sea mission will continue while the air mission will recommence at daylight.
For the passenger manifest of MH370, click here.
The passengers are of 14 different nationalities. All crew on-board are Malaysians.
The below table shows the latest number of passengers and their nationalities:-
Nationality Total China/Taiwan 153 including infant/1 Malaysia 38 India 5 Indonesia 7 Australia 6 France 4 USA 3 including infant New Zealand 2 Ukraine 2 Canada 2 Russian 1 Italy 1 Netherlands 1 Austrian 1 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 Italian and Austrian passengers have been reported to be on the ground (and did not board the plane) due to passport theft.
Vietnam’s air force has spotted two possible oil slicks – The 10-15km-long oil slicks spaced 500m apart were discovered 140km south of Tho Chu Island, which is located off the southwest coast of Vietnam.
This is a hard time for both the friends and family of the passengers and crew involved, as for the aviation community as we pondered what brought down this plane and why.
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