Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 239 people bound for Beijing has lost contact with air traffic control after leaving Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur.
The airline said in a statement that Flight MH370 disappeared Saturday at 2.40am local time (1840 GMT Friday). It was carrying 227 passengers, including two infants, and 12 crew members.
“Malaysia Airlines is currently working with the authorities who have activated their search and rescue team to locate the aircraft,” the carrier said.
Pham Hien, a Vietnamese search and rescue official, said the last signal from the plane detected by the aviation authority was over the South China Sea 140 miles southwest of Vietnam’s southernmost Ca Mau province.
The plane, a Boeing 777-200, left Kuala Lumpur just after midnight on Saturday, and had been due to arrive in Beijing at 6.30 am local time.
A woman cries in Beijing airport as she waits to hear information about her family
A spokeswoman said she could not immediately provide further details.
China has dispatched two rescue ships to the South China Sea.
There were 152 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, 12 Indonesians, and seven Australians on the flight.
At Beijing’s airport authorities asked friends and relatives of the passengers to gather at a hotel about nine miles away and provided a shuttle bus service.
A woman wept aboard the shuttle bus while saying on a mobile phone, “They want us to go to the hotel. It cannot be good!”
The pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, has more than 18,000 flying hours and has been flying for Malaysia Airlines since 1981.
The first officer Fariq Hamid, 27, has about 2,800 hours of experience and has flown for the airline since 2007.
Family and friends waiting for the plane to arrive break down as they hear the jet has gone missing
Malaysia Airlines planes have had few accidents. One of the smaller Twin Otter aircraft, operated by MASwings, crashed upon landing in Malaysia’s Sabah state on Borneo island last October, killing a co-pilot and a passenger.
A jet crashed in 1977 in southern Malaysia, killing all 93 passengers and seven crew.
State news agency Xinhua reported radar contact with the flight was lost while it was in Vietnamese airspace.
If the plane is found to have crashed, the loss would mark the second fatal accident involving a Boeing 777 in less than a year, after an unblemished safety record since the jet entered service in 1995.
Last summer, an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 crash landed in San Francisco, killing three passengers.
Boeing said it was aware of reports that the Malaysia Airlines plane was missing and was monitoring the situation but had no further comment.
Malaysia Airlines Group Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said: “We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts with flight MH370. Our team is currently calling the next-of-kin of passengers and crew. Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members.”
A member of staff from Malaysia Airlines is surrounded by reporters at the airport
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.
Malaysia Airlines said the plane, on an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, relayed no distress signal, indications of rough weather, or other signs of trouble.
“The plane lost contact near Ca Mau province airspace as it was preparing to transfer to Ho Chi Minh City air traffic control,” a statement on the official Vietnamese government website said.
Its signal never appeared to Ho Chi Minh City controllers, it said. Ca Mau province is in southernmost Vietnam, next to the Cambodian border.
Vietnam’s defence ministry has launched a search for the plane, the statement added.
Malaysian authorities also dispatched a plane, two helicopters and four vessels to search seas off its east coast in the South China Sea, said Faridah Shuib, a spokeswoman for the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.
The Philippines said it was sending three navy patrol boats and a surveillance plane to help efforts.