Malaysia Airlines issues media statement

Malaysia Airlines is still unable to establish any contact or determine the whereabouts of flight MH370. Earlier today, Subang ATC had lost contact with the aircraft at 2:40 am. The last known position of MH370 before it disappeared off the radar was 065515 North (longitude) and 1033443 East (latitude).

We are still trying to locate the current location of the flight based on the last known position of the aircraft. We are working with the International search and rescue teams in trying to locate the aircraft. So far, we have not received any emergency signals or distress messages from MH370. We are working with authorities and assure that all sources are deployed to assist with the search and rescue mission.

The passenger manifest will not be released until all families of the passengers have been informed. The flight was carrying a total number of 239 passengers and crew – comprising 227 passengers (including 2 infants) and 12 crew members.

We are deploying our “Go Team” to Beijing which will depart Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 4:30 pm with a team of caregivers and volunteers to assist the family members of the passengers.

The passengers are of 14 different nationalities. All crew on-board are Malaysians.

Please take note that the earlier statement did not include the number of Indian nationals. This was due to confusion between the country code of Indonesia and India.

The below table shows the latest number of passengers and their nationalities:

Chinese mainland/Taiwan 154 including infant

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 focus now is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize our full support.

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 airline will provide regular updates on the situation. There are many unvalidated reports out in the media and Malaysia Airlines strongly urges the media and the public at large to only report from official statements from Malaysia Airlines and the Government of Malaysia.