Distressed family members of those on board the flight have also been gathering at Beijing airport.
Chang
Ken Fei, a Malaysian waiting at the airport for friends to arrive,
said: "I got here at 7:00am. At first I thought the plane was just
delayed as normal, so I came a bit later, I've just been waiting and
waiting."
"I asked them what was going on but they just tell us, 'we don't know'."
If
the plane is found to have crashed, the loss would mark the second
fatal accident involving a Boeing 777 in less than a year, after an
unblemished safety record since the jet entered service in 1995.
Last year, an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 crash landed in San Francisco, killing three passengers.
Boeing
said it was aware of reports that the Malaysia Airlines plane was
missing and was monitoring the situation but had no further comment.
Among
previous accidents involving Malaysia Airlines planes, one of the
smaller Twin Otter aircraft crashed upon landing in Malaysia's Sabah
state on Borneo island last October, killing a co-pilot and a passenger.
And a jet crashed in 1977 in southern Malaysia, killing all 93 passengers and seven crew.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Malaysia
Airlines has still not been able to confirm what happened to the
flight. The airline has confirmed that there were 4 Americans — 3 adults
and one infant — aboard the flight, which also carried Canadians and
Australians, and a majority of Chinese and Malay passengers.
Malaysia Airlines lost contact with a commercial aircraft bound from
Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, China, the airline reported Saturday morning.
Flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200ER that was carrying 227 passengers and
12 crew members, was scheduled to land at 6:30 a.m., but lost contact
with air traffic control at 2:40 a.m. on March 8. Its whereabouts are
unknown.
At 7:24 a.m. local time, the airline posted a message to its Facebook page
stating it was working with local search and rescue authorities to find
the aircraft, and that it would continue to provide updates. It
encouraged the public to contact a number provided for information.
A search for the flight on FlightAware.com showed its status as "result unknown" and included a map that depicted its partially completed route.
Malaysia Airlines VP of operations Fuad Sharuji told
CNN's Anderson Cooper that it had tried but "failed to establish any
contact" with the plane before he detailed concerns about how much fuel
it was carrying.
There were "about seven hours of fuel on board this aircraft and we
suspect that by 8:30 this aircraft would have run out of fuel," Faruji
said. He added, "At the moment we have no idea where this aircraft is
right now."
Kuala Lumpur is the hub for Malaysia Airlines, which services over 60
destinations globally with a heavy presence in Asia, according to its
website. The airline told the BBC that it would hold a press conference on the situation later in the day.
According to Reuters, Boeing's 777 had a solid safety record after its 1995 introduction up until last summer's Asiana Airlines crash in San Francisco, Calif.
We will continue to update this post with more information as it arises.
A search for the flight on FlightAware.com showed its status as "result unknown" and included a map that depicted its partially completed route.
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