Beijing bound Air Malaysia flight loses contact

[Viet]

Between the two there is a 200 nautical mile
Exclusive economic zone

correct, but ouside of territorial waters (12 miles) is international waters.

 

[pak-marine]

This is a Nightmare scenario , May God give the families patience

 

[cnleio]

 

[Brahmos_2]

Five Indians among 239 on board missing Malaysia Airlines plane | NDTV.com

 

[Sugarcane]

That's very sad - May everyone is all right and rescued alive.

 

[Viet]

Vietnam has offered Malaysia an AN 26 plane and three helicopters for possible search and rescue activities.

Vietnam ready to join search for crashed Malaysian plane | Tuổi Trẻ news

According to the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, a helicopter from Malaysia and a C130 plan from Singapore have been searching for the crashed plane.

 

[BoQ77]

I think the location as cnleio posted is false rumor ... that location close to Vietnam coast inside the Gulf of Thailand.

in Vietnamese rumor, at 10:00 am a foreign plane landing into sea and crack into 2 pieces.

No way, for a missing plane from 9 hours before flies until out of fuel and crash after such a long time for a very short distance

GULF OF THAILAND

print this map other bodies of water Gulf of Thailand

The Gulf of Thailand, formerly the Gulf of Siam, is an inlet of the South China Sea.

Bordered by Thailand, Cambodia, and the southwestern edge of Vietnam, the gulf's maximum width is 350 miles (560 km), and it extends approximately 450 miles (725 km) in length.

The Gulf of Thailand is quite shallow along the coastal areas, and those waters provide lucrative fishing grounds. Many rivers flow into the Gulf of Thailand, with the Chao Phraya being the most significant.

 

[Jguo]

Yes like mentioned earlier it is extremely rare (if ever) that ALL communications devices and channels malfunction at the exact same time - as well as giving no prior warning of any sorts before losing contact.

Quoting another source:

'I have heard additional reports that the aircraft, after taking off and cruising at 35,000 feet (safest part of the flight) en route to Beijing, suddenly plummeted 600 feet and veered off course in just a few seconds based on transponder communications...with no voice communications in that short time...and then all communication was abruptly and completely lost.'

Most of the KL-Beijing journey is actually over land, but it crashed very quickly after take off in the sea, perhaps to minimize the chances of evidence being gathered. This was the plan the terrorists had for the Pan Am Flight 103 in the Lockerbie Bombing case.

Apart from the possibility of catastrophic aircraft failure (which given the 777 record and build is extremely unlikely), I am 90% confident the reason for the crash is induced artificially. Terrorism or not, and for what reason and what party carried it out, we'll have to wait to find out - I hope we will find out, the families and countrymen of the victims deserve the truth and to hold those responsible accountable.

 

[Rajaraja Chola]

Sad news! I hope they find rescuers..! RIP

 

[Roybot]

Most of the KL-Beijing journey is actually over land, but it crashed very quickly after take off in the sea, perhaps to minimize the chances of evidence being gathered. This was the plan the terrorists had for the Pan Am Flight 103 in the Lockerbie Bombing case.

Apart from the possibility of catastrophic aircraft failure (which given the 777 record and build is extremely unlikely), I am 90% confident the reason for the crash is induced artificially. Terrorism or not, and for what reason and what party carried it out, we'll have to wait to find out - I hope we will find out, the families and countrymen of the victims deserve the truth and to hold those responsible accountable.

Please do not participate in rumor mongering, The way the terrorists operate, they would want the whole world to know that they have done it, rather than "destroy evidence".

 

[EastSea]

30 minute before, (Reuters) - A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew went missing over the South China Sea on Saturday, presumed crashed, as ships from countries closest to its flight path scoured a large search area for any wreckage.

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, but 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.

Vietnam's state-run Tuoi Tre news also quoted Admiral Ngo Van Phat as qualifying his earlier remarks about a crash site having been identified, saying he had been referring to a presumed crash site beneath the plane's flight path using information supplied by Malaysia.

A crash, if confirmed, would 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 without issuing a distress call.

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.

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, he said but gave no details. China and the Philippines have sent ships to the South China Sea to help in any search and rescue.

"We are extremely worried," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing before the initial Vietnamese report that the plane had crashed. "The news is very disturbing. We hope everyone on the plane is safe."

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 said people from 14 nationalities were among the 227 passengers, including at least 152 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, 12 Indonesians, six Australians and three Americans. It also said a Chinese infant and an American infant were aboard.

If it is confirmed that the plane has 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 aware of reports that the Malaysia Airlines plane was missing and 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 (CAAV) 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 and Alwyn Scott in NEW YORK; Writing by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Paul Tait)

 

[thesolar65]

Very very sad news, all are hoping against hope. May GOD give strength to the families to brace up for worst news....

 

[Jguo]

Please do not participate in rumor mongering, The way the terrorists operate, they would want the whole world to know that they have done it, rather than "destroy evidence".

Read carefully again. I said:

'I am 90% confident the reason for the crash is induced artificially. Terrorism or not, and for what reason and what party carried it out, we'll have to wait to find out'

Perhaps I shouldn't have drawn the similarities to the Lockerbie bombing.

We will have to wait for a lengthy investigation (mostly likely multi-nation joint effort) to find out what happened. I guess I'm trying to highlight how difficult, if not impossible, it would be to investigate the cause of the crash if the plane goes down in the ocean.

 

[BoQ77]

Many search and rescue ships and aircrafts are searching for the missing plane and passengers.

Let's pray for the passengers and rescue teams

 

[EastSea]

The area for search the flight clashed made by Vietnamese authorities.