* Still missing *Malaysian Airlines plane with 239 on board

[Chism]

Malaysian Airlines plane MH370 has been officially reported as missing after losing all contact with air traffic controllers early his morning.

The Boeing 777-200 was due to arrive in Beijing at 6:30am local time but failed to arrive nor has been contactable since 2hrs into the flight after departing Kuala Lumpar at 12:30am.

The flight would of run out of fuel by 9am Beijing time and it is impossible it is still flying some where now. Malaysia Airlines has begun a search and rescue operation following its flight path but nothing has come to light right now and no crashes reported yet.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/trave...on-board-missing/story-fnizu68q-1226848860442

239 passengers were on board including the crew.

Very sad for the people and families involved and i am sure more info will be available as the day goes on.

Official statement from the airline here....

http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/site/dark-site.html

 

[Borry]

Another news source
http://www.watoday.com.au/world/mal...n-200-passengers-on-board-20140308-hvgnx.html

Malaysia Airlines plane missing with more than 200 passengers on board
Nick Toscano, Lindsay Murdoch
Published: March 8, 2014 - 10:07AM

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Search and rescue teams are trying to find a Malaysia Airlines plane that has gone missing with more than 200 passengers on board.

The airline lost contact with the B777-200 aircraft after it departed Kuala Lumpur shortly after 12.40am local time on Saturday.

It was expected to land in Beijing at 6.30am.

Flight MH370 was carrying 227 passengers including two infants and 12 crew members.

Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that it was working with the authorities who have activated their search and rescue team to locate the aircraft.

An unconfirmed report from a flight tracking website said the plane had plunged more than 200 metres and changed course in the last minute that it had transmitted data.

The airline will provide regular updates on the situation.

Australian authorities are trying to confirm whether there were any Australian passengers on board the missing flight, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

Chinese authorities have reportedly said the flight never entered Chinese airspace.

A flight-tracking website said communication was lost 20 minutes after departure from Kuala Lumpur.

"It doesn't sound very good," retired American Airlines captain Jim Tilmon told CNN on Saturday.

He said that the route was mostly overland, which meant that there would be plenty of radars and radios to contact the plane.

"I've been trying to come up with every scenario that I could just to explain this away, but I haven't been very successful."

He said the plane was "about as sophisticated as any commercial airplane could possibly be".

Some websites listed the plane as having landed at 6.10am in Beijing but Malaysian Airlines issued the statement to report it was missing at 7.54am.

The missing plane is believed to have been involved in a crash in August, 2012, when it damaged the tail of a China Eastern Airlines plane at Shanghai Pudong Airport, according to unconfirmed reports.

In the incident, the tip of the wing of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 broke off.

Malaysia Airlines has just released a statement saying its "thoughts and prayers" were with all the passengers on board the missing plane, and their families.

Passengers of 13 nationalities were on board the plane.

"[The] focus of the airline is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support," chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said.

"Our team is micurrently calling the next-of-kin of passengers and crew."

Malaysia Airlines is the national carrier of Malaysia and one of Asia's largest, flying nearly 37,000 passengers daily to some 80 destinations worldwide.

The airline said the public can call +60-378841234 for information about the plane.

Licenced pilot John Preston said that rumours that the aircraft has made an emergency landing in Nanming are unlikely.

"I think we can safely discount that."

He said Chinese authorities had confirmed the plane had not entered their airspace. He said there were several ways for the aircraft to communicate with the authorities but that does not appear to have happened.

I suspect that the plane has crashed.

And if the speculation that it was involved in another accident is true then the way it has been maintained from that previous incident may have been a contributor to the crash, if it did crash. We will not find out the whole story in several years though.

Would have been a few Australians on that flight too, so not very good, quite possibly a major tragedy for some to come.

 

[BALKAN]

Jeez what a nightmare.
You'd think the plane crashed, but jeez I'd really love for it to be something less dramatic (as I imagine everyone would)

 

[Chism]

So many unanswered questions right now and it is all over CNN right now with experts currently baffled.

The last known contact was at 35,000 feet and cruising speed in which the Plane would of been on Auto pilot ( The safest part of the journey ). There has been no distress signals or mayday calls of any type from the Plane that we have heard nor has anyone anywhere cited a wreckage and surely by now you would think someone would of reported something as the route it flew was meant to be over land 80% of the time with another route available that would of taken it over the Sth China sea for a small amount of time, but no one can officially say yet what route the plane took nor how long it was flying after all contact was lost.

Official tracking of the flight is here and you can see when all contact has been lost.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/MAS370/history/20140307/1635Z/WMKK/ZBAA/tracklog

 

[Bennett.]

So many unanswered questions right now and it is all over CNN right now with experts currently baffled.

The last known contact was at 35,000 feet and cruising speed in which the Plane would of been on Auto pilot ( The safest part of the journey ). There has been no distress signals or mayday calls of any type from the Plane that we have heard nor has anyone anywhere cited a wreckage and surely by now you would think someone would of reported something as the route it flew was meant to be over land 80% of the time with another route available that would of taken it over the Sth China sea for a small amount of time, but no one can officially say yet what route the plane took nor how long it was flying after all contact was lost.

Official tracking of the flight is here and you can see when all contact has been lost.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/MAS370/history/20140307/1635Z/WMKK/ZBAA/tracklog

that's the concerning part. No mayday and at FL350 an explosive decompression or something could have caused a whole raft of issues, not least a catastrophic breaking up of the plane.

 

[Chism]

Highly likely some Aussies were on board according to 9 News.

 

[Bennett.]

flightaware seems to suggest it had just finished its climb out

 

[Bennett.]

777 too, pretty much the safest plane.

 

[Chism]

flightaware seems to suggest it had just finished its climb out

Around 2hrs into the flight contact was lost and the expert on CNN said at this stage of the flight was meant to be or usually the safest. Auto Pilot would of been in control according to him.

 

[Borry]

Are the latitude/longitude coordinates known at the time it 'disappeared' off the radar?

 

[Bennett.]

Around 2hrs into the flight contact was lost and the expert on CNN said at this stage of the flight was meant to be or usually the safest. Auto Pilot would of been in control according to him.

that's what is confusing. Looking at the tracker data and the mapping it seems contact was lost over land.
How long was it before the tracking was lost and it was noticed?

 

[Quivorir]

Would have been a few Australians on that flight too, so not very good, quite possibly a major tragedy for some to come.

So it becomes worse cause their was Australians on board?

 

[Bennett.]

Are the latitude/longitude coordinates known at the time it 'disappeared' off the radar?

pretty much the last reported position would be the starting point for a search.

 

[Bennett.]

whatever the event, it appears to be a sudden and catastrophic one.

Sad.

 

[Outshined]

Even the Air France flight sent out a series of error messages before it disappeared. This has just given absolutely no sign. Scary.

 

[Catfish Alley]

So it becomes were cause their was Australians on board?

It's more that family and friends can be made aware.

 

[Jobe Watson]

Most likely ran out of fuel and is somewhere deep in a Vietnam forest right now.

 

[Bennett.]

Most likely ran out of fuel and is somewhere deep in a Vietnam forest right now.

no chance. Even without fuel, from FL350 in could have glided for ages.

 

[Chism]

Most likely ran out of fuel and is somewhere deep in a Vietnam forest right now.

Not 2hrs into a 6hr flight it wouldn't have.

 

[Jobe Watson]

no chance. Even without fuel, from FL350 in could have glided for ages.

Not 2hrs into a 6hr flight it wouldn't have.

Yeah, just reading over a few more articles, does seem very sudden. No warnings.

Don't think it will be too long before they find the wreckage unfortunately.

 

[Outshined]

7 Australians on board.

 

[GOAUS!]

777 too, pretty much the safest plane.

Doesn't matter how safe the plane is, an Air France A330 crashed because the pilots couldn't recognise that they were stalling despite the stall warning light going off.

 

[GreekLunatic]

I pray im wrong but it seems very eeriely same like the air france crash . I hope they landed somewhere and all are safe

 

[Chism]

that's what is confusing. Looking at the tracker data and the mapping it seems contact was lost over land.
How long was it before the tracking was lost and it was noticed?

It is like it just disappeared of the face of the planet right now.

The 777 has a heap of safety features and different ways to communicate with Air Traffic control even if the pilots do not instigate it. We have no distress signals of any kind from anyone and in the event of a plane going down the Pilots always seem to get in contact with someone.

You can not rule out a terrorist attack either and the plane having a bomb on board would be feasible but who knows.

Live press conference now from Malaysia Airlines where they have mentioned the nationalities from all on board.

China had 152 people on it including an infant.

Malaysia 38

Tunisia 12

Australia 7

France 3

USA 3 including Infant

NZ 2

Ukraine 2

Canada 2

Russia 1

Italy 1

Taiwan 1

Netherlands 1

Austria 1

 

[Tulip]

Feel so completely sick. Best wishes to all those on board and involved for a safe ending.