Flight MH370 bound for Beijing goes missing

SEPANG: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) confirms that flight MH370 is missing. MAS says Subang Air Traffic Control lost contact with the aircraft at 2.40am, Saturday.

In a statement issued by the airline, flight MH370, operated on the B777-200 aircraft, departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41am on 8 March 2014. It was expected to land in Beijing at 6.30am the same day.

The flight was carrying 227 passengers (including 2 infants) and 12 crewmembers.

Malaysia Airlines is currently working with the authorities who have activated their Search and Rescue team to locate the aircraft.

Malaysian Airlines vice president of operations, Fuad Sharuji during an interview with CNN said that the aircraft should have run out of fuel by 8.30am Saturday morning as it only had seven hours of fuel on board.

In the interview with Anderson Cooper, Fuad explained that the flight which departed 41 minutes after midnight from Kuala Lumpur was supposed to have arrived in Beijing at 6.20am.

“However the plane carrying 239 passengers, of which 227 were passengers while 12 were crew members lost contact with the Subang Air Traffic Control at 2.40am.

“We have tried to track the flight down by getting in touch with nearby aircrafts and other radars along the route, but there is no luck as of now,” he said.

A report by CCTV news said 160 out of the 227 passengers were Chinese nationals and that China authorities are also in the process of searching for the missing flight.

MAS will provide regular updates on the situation.

The public may contact [phone] for further information.