DHAKA: A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 227 passengers and 12 crews has crashed in the South China Sea, Vietnamese state media said, quoting a senior naval official.
The Boeing 777-200ER flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing had been missing for hours when Vietnam`s Tuoi Tre news quoted Admiral Ngo Van Phat as saying he had asked boats from an island off south Vietnam to rush to the crash site.
If the report is confirmed, it would mark the US-built airliner`s deadliest crash since entering service 19 years ago, the Reuters news agency reported. Malaysia Airlines had yet to confirm that the aircraft had crashed.
It said earlier on Saturday that no distress signal had been given and cited early speculation that the plane may have landed in Nanming in southern China.
Malaysia`s flag carrier said flight MH370 disappeared at 2.40am local time on Saturday (1840 GMT Friday), about two hours after leaving Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
It had been due to arrive in Beijing at 6.30am local time on Saturday (2230 GMT Friday).
The flight was carrying 152 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, 12 Indonesians and seven Australians among the 227 passengers, the airline said on Saturday.
There were also three US citizens, three from France, two passengers each from New Zealand, Ukraine, and Canada, and one each from Italy, Taiwan, the Netherlands and Austria, the airline said in a statement. There were also two infants and twelve crew members on the flight.
"We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts with flight MH370 which departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41 am earlier this morning bound for Beijing," Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, Malaysia Airlines group chief executive officer, said in a statement.
The statement said the carrier was working with authorities, who had launched an effort to locate the aircraft.
The airline`s Kuala Lumpur-Beijing route passes roughly over the Indochinese peninsula.
Al Jazeera`s Rob McBride, reporting from Beijing Airport, where the plane had been due to land, said there had been little information from the authorities.
"It seems the airline and the authorities are as much in the dark as everyone else," he said.
"We are getting reports from all sides that [the different aviation authorities] are collaborating as much as possible on the search."
No distress signal
There were rumours the plane had landed safely, but Fuad Sharuji, Malaysian Airlines` vice president of operations control, told CNN that they were untrue and the airline had no idea where the plane was.
Ross Aimer, a former pilot with United Airlines, told Al Jazeera it was highly unusual that air traffic control would lose contact with an aircraft without communication from the crew.
"The fact that there was absolutely no distress signal is very disturbing. This is almost unprecedented that we lose an aircraft in such a way … In that area of the world, over Vietnam, there is sporadic radar coverage to begin with," he said.
He said the Chinese authorities would have communicated something to the outside world if it was a hijacking case.
A report by China`s Xinhua news agency said contact was lost with the plane while it was near Vietnamese airspace.
Source: Al-Jazeera
** Malaysian plane missing with 239 passengers
BDST: 1236 HRS, MAR 08, 2014
