UPDATE 4:20pm: Fairfax media have confirmed with Malaysia Airlines that there were six Australians on board flight MH370, not seven as was previously reported.
——————————————————————————————–
UPDATE 3:10pm: Contrary to previous reports, no signal had been picked up from a Malaysia Airlines Boeing B777-200 aircraft flight by Vietnamese officials.
Vietnamese and Chinese media had reported that a signal from the plane had been picked up, prompting speculation that the plane had in fact landed, or been detected in the ocean.
——————————————————————————————–
UPDATE 2:50pm: Malaysia Airlines have released another statement on their Facebook page. It confirms that there were seven Australians on board the flight.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we are deeply saddened this morning with the news on MH370.
Malaysia Airlines confirms that flight MH370 had lost contact with Subang Air Traffic Control at 2.40am, today.
There has been speculation that the aircraft has landed at Nanming.
We are working to verify the authenticity of the report and others.
Flight MH370 was operated on a Boeing 777-200 aircraft.
It departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41 am earlier this morning bound for Beijing.
The aircraft was scheduled to land at Beijing International Airport at 6.30am local Beijing time.
The flight was carrying a total number of 239 passengers and crew – comprising 227 passengers (including 2 infants), 12 crew members.
The passengers were of 14 different nationalities – citizens from:-
15. China – 152 plus 1 infant
16. Malaysia – 38
17. Indonesia – 12
18. Australia – 7
19. France – 3
20. United States of America – 3 pax plus 1 infant
21. New Zealand – 2
22. Ukraine – 2
23. Canada – 2
24. Russia – 1
25. Italy – 1
26. Taiwan – 1
27. Netherlands – 1
28. Austria – 1
This flight was a code share with China Southern Airlines.
We are working with authorities who have activated their Search and Rescue team to locate the aircraft.
Our team is currently calling the next-of-kin of passengers and crew.
The flight was piloted by Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a Malaysian aged 53. He has a total flying hours of 18,365 hours. He joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981.
First officer, Fariq Ab.Hamid, a Malaysian, is aged 27. He has a total flying hours of 2,763 hours. He joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007.
Our focus now is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support.
Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members.
——————————————————————————————–
UPDATE 2:20pm: There are now reports that there are seven Australians on board the flight. We will update as more details come to light.
——————————————————————————————–
UPDATE 1:35pm: A spokesperson for Malaysia Airlines has told The Daily Telegraph that it is their understanding that there are Australian passengers on board Flight MH370, which is lost after failing to arrive at Beijing from Kuala Lumpur earlier this morning.
The Daily Telegraph’s digital editor Peter Brown tweeted:
BREAKING NEWS: “It is our understanding there are Australian passengers on board,” a #MalaysiaAirlines spokesman has told @dailytelegraph
— Peter Brown (@SydneyEditor) March 8, 2014
Top Comments
Heartbreaking.
I hope the two people using stolen passports weren't involved in any way.
Imagine being told your son was lost in a plane crash only to have him ring up a bit later to say his passport was stolen a couple of months ago.
I think it's unfair on the friends and relatives to continue this lie that the aircraft is "missing".
Modern planes such as the Boeing 777 have so many different systems that communicate with the ground it's not funny, and they aren't just in radio contact with air traffic control. They can have radio failure, but they have two VHF radios, and usually two HF radios, as well as navigation aides that identify the plane, and a system called identification friend or foe (IFF). The only way that all of these systems fail at the same time is for a catastrophic failure to occur. This plane simply dropped off all the radar and other systems to track it's position.
I'm guessing the plane did experience a catastrophic structural failure at its cruising altitude and broke up in mid air. Any other failure would have resulted in a distress code on the IFF and mayday calls with requests to attempt to land at the nearest airport.
Mid air catastrophic failures have happened in the past, DeHaviland Comets were the first jet airliner and they suffered a number of catastrophic failures at altitude leading to mid air break up. Those crashes led to knowledge of the previously unknown phenomena of metal fatigue. It also led to aircraft windows having rounded corners so the stress concentrations don't occur.
A 747 exploded and broke up in mid air in about 1986. The cause was found to be a spark in an empty fuel tank in the fuselage that caused a vapour explosion which led to mid air break up of the aircraft.
There have been others, but the common thing with all catastrophic failures is that there are no distress calls made or use of other systems that would indicate the aircraft is experiencing a problem.
However, after that forensic analysis I really feel for the families of the people on the plane.
I can see what you're saying about the fact that the plane is gone and there's a 99% chance that everyone on board has passed away. But surely they have to be slightly vague as to what's happened and use a euphemisn like 'missing' rather than saying what everyone is thinking: that something terrible happened and there aren't going to be any survivors.
Unfortunately Zeppy I think the chances of anyone surviving are infinitely small.
They were cruising at 36 thousand feet, which is more than 2 km higher than mt Everest. The lack of oxygen up there causes unconsciousness in seconds, and death very soon after.
I actually think telling people that the plane is missing is cruel. Then again, is there a nice way of saying they're dead?
Yeah, I think you're completely right, I don't think anyone will come out of that alive. But I do think it's more diplomatic to say 'missing' rather than 'pretty sure they're all dead' until they actually find the the plane and bodies or call off the search completely.