Chinese warships rush to join search efforts

 

Live report on the missing Malaysia plane

Facts and figures about Boeing 777-200

Families and friends await words

Route of Flight MH370

ZHANJIANG - Two warships of the Chinese navy, "Jinggangshan" and "Mianyang", are on their way to sea area where missing Malaysia Airline flight MH 370 may have crashed, navy sources said.

The vessel "Jinggangshan", loaded with life-saving equipment, underwater detection facilities and supplies of water and food, set out from Zhanjiang city of south China's Guangdong Province at about 3:00 am on Sunday for search and rescue mission.

Two helicopters, 30 medical personnel, ten divers and 52 marines are also on board.

Another Chinese navy vessel "Mianyang" left for the possible crash site on Saturday night.

A Boeing 777-200 aircraft operated by Malaysia Airlines left the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 00:41 am Beijing time on Saturday and was expected to land in Beijing at 6:30 am, after a 3,700-km trip.

Contact with the flight was lost along with its radar signal at 1:20 am Beijing time on Saturday when it was flying over the Ho Chi Minh air traffic control area in Vietnam.

Chinese rescue force reaches suspected site of missing plane

A Chinese coast guard vessel has entered the waters around the suspected site of the missing Malaysian plane to carry out a rescue mission.

As of 11:30 am on Sunday, the vessel "China Coast Guard 3411" has entered the area and was about 45 nautical miles from where the plane was believed to be when it lost contact with ground control, according to China's State Oceanic Administration.

Relatives of MH370 passengers to fly to undisclosed location

Relatives of passengers aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines plane will be taken to the KL International Airport to be flown to an undisclosed location Sunday morning, state news agency Bernama reported.

No information on location of missing flight: Malaysia Airline

There is still no information on the location of Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370, more than 24 hours after it lost contact with ground, the airline said early Sunday.

"As of now, the search and the rescue team has yet to determine the whereabouts of the MH370," said the airline's spokesman at a press conference in Beijing, which lasted less than 30 minutes.

He added that rescue teams have "failed to find evidence of any wreckage."

No evidence of any wreckage: Malaysia Airline

 

Related Passengers and their nationalities News about search and rescue

"It has been more than 24 hours since we last heard from MH370 at 1:30 am. The search and rescue team is yet to determine the whereabouts of the Boeing 777-200 aircraft." said Malaysia Airlines in its sixth media statement on their website.

An international search and rescue mission from Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam has been deployed this morning. So far, the team has failed to find evidence of any wreckage. The sea mission will continue overnight while the air mission will recommence at daytime.

Vietnamese air force planes on Saturday spotted two large oil slicks close to where a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 went missing earlier in the day, the first sign that the aircraft carrying 239 people had crashed.

The air force planes were part of a multinational search operation launched after Flight MH370 fell off radar screens less than an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early Saturday morning.

The oil slicks were spotted late Saturday off the southern tip of Vietnam and were each between 10 kilometers (6 miles) and 15 kilometers (9 miles) long, the Vietnamese government said in a statement. There was no confirmation that the slicks were related to the missing plane, but the statement said they were consistent with the kinds that would be produced by the two fuel tanks of a crashed jetliner.

Two-thirds of the missing plane's passengers were from China, while others were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe. Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said there was no indication that the pilots had sent a distress signal, suggesting that whatever happened to the plane occurred quickly and possibly catastrophically.

Chinese leaders urge Malaysia flight emergency response

President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday urged emergency measures over the missing Malaysian flight bound for Beijing with more than 150 Chinese nationals on board.

Xi ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as Chinese embassies and consulates to strengthen contact with departments of relevant countries and pay close attention to the search and rescue work for the plane, which lost contact with traffic controllers at 1:20 am on Saturday.

All-out efforts must be made for any emergency treatment necessary in the aftermath of the incident, Xi said in his instruction.

The Ministry of Transportation and the Civil Aviation Administration must launch emergency measures immediately and enhance security checks to ensure the "absolute safety" of China's civil aviation operation, according to the president.

Premier Li instructed the government to intensify communication and contact with civil aviation agencies of Malaysia, urging them to intensify the search effort.

He also called for details of the Chinese passengers aboard the plane to be verified as soon as possible.