Missing plane MH370: Malaysia urged to step up search Latest What we know Passengers? Video Images Airline shares hit A patrol vessel of Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency searches for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane off Tok Bali Beach in Kelantan, Malaysia, on 9 March 2014 There are 40 ships and 34 aircraft from nine different nations taking part in the search Continue reading the main story Related Stories Flight MH370: Whats known Who were passengers? In pictures: The wait China has urged Malaysia to step up its efforts in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared on Saturday. Nearly three days after the jet went missing, an international effort has still not found the planes wreckage. The authorities are further expanding the search areas in the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea. Flight MH370 vanished from radar almost three days ago en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, with 239 people on board. Relatives of the missing passengers have been told to prepare for the worst. Continue reading the main story Social media reaction image of Celia Hatton Celia Hatton BBC News, Beijing I believe you will come back alive, one young woman appeals to her friend on Weibo, Chinas version of Twitter. Her good friend, his wife, his brother and brother-in-law were all on board flight MH370, which disappeared en route to Beijing. I want to know what you are doing now! Are you hungry and are you cold? You are a chubby guy. You can make it, right? Time is killing our hope bit by bit, user RoseMiiiiira continues. I cant believe Im losing so many people so suddenly. The wait has been agonising for the family members of the missing passengers who are waiting for news at a Beijing hotel. The Chinese government is ignoring them, they complain. Information from official sources is scarce and often conflicting. In comparison, Chinas social media websites have been overwhelmed with millions of messages expressing sympathy for those who knew people on flight MH370. Ask Malaysian Airlines for more information, not the relatives, one user scolds Chinese journalists. The families are sad enough. Do not surround them with your cameras. Give them some space and respect. At a news conference on Monday, Malaysias civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said all security protocols had been complied with and confirmed that the two men aboard the plane travelling on stolen passports were not Asian-looking men. Earlier, China said the Malaysian authorities needed to step up their efforts to find the missing airliner, which had more than 150 Chinese nationals on board. We... have a responsibility to demand and urge the Malaysian side to step up [its] search efforts, start an investigation as soon as possible and provide relevant information to China correctly and in a timely manner, said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang. Patience appears to be wearing thin in the search for the missing airplane, says the BBCs Celia Hatton in Beijing. Malaysias acting transport minister, Hishamuddin Hussein: Search and rescue the main focus The Global Times, a prominent Communist Party newspaper, issued a sharply worded editorial arguing there were loopholes in the work of Malaysian airlines and security authorities, noting that until yesterday [Sunday], the Malaysian government could not even ensure accurate information about the [planes] passengers. The Malaysian authorities are attempting to address Chinese concerns - they have reissued a pledge to fly worried family members to Kuala Lumpur so they can be closer to the search efforts, our correspondent adds. But one victims relative - Guo Qishun, whose son-in-law was on the plane - said he did not see the point of flying to Malaysia. We dont want to go to Malaysia now. There is no result from the search operation yet. If we go to Malaysia, we can do nothing but wait, just like what we are doing in Beijing now. If we go to Malaysia, who can we rely on? Most of us dont speak English, he told the Associated Press news agency. Chinese relatives of passengers wait inside a hotel room in Beijing Monday The relatives of Chinese passengers have had a long wait for news of their loved ones Vietnamese helicopter prepares to join search, Phu Quoc (10 March 2014) The area being searched by air and sea covers hundreds of kilometres Earlier, the Malaysian authorities said they had identified one of the two men travelling on the missing plane on stolen passports. Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said they could not reveal his identity, but confirmed the man was a non-Malaysian. Malaysias acting transport minister, Hishamuddin Hussein, said all of the relevant information concerning those two passengers had now been passed on to the various national intelligence agencies which were investigating the matter. International police agency Interpol has confirmed the passengers were travelling with Italian and Austrian passports stolen in Thailand years ago. The presence of two passengers with stolen passports is a breach of security, but could relate to illegal migration, observers say. Search continues There are some 40 ships and 34 aircraft from nine different nations taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia. Commander William Marks from the US Seventh Fleet, which is taking part in the search, says he expects the planes flight recorders to be floating in the water. In calm seas, if there were a soccer ball [football] or a basketball floating in the water, the radar could pick it up. They [flight recorders] typically have a radio beacon and so for example our P3 [radar] - if they are flying within a certain range of that - will pick up that radio beacon. We have not yet picked up anything, but thats typically what those black boxes contain. None of the debris and oil slicks spotted in the water so far have proven to be linked to the disappearance. Continue reading the main story Manifest for flight MH370 153 Chinese including one child 38 Malaysians 7 Indonesians 6 Australians 5 Indians 4 French 3 Americans including one child 2 each from New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada One each from Russia, Taiwan, Italy, Netherlands and Austria ( although both Italy and Austria deny any of their nationals were onboard) Source: Malaysia Airlines Who were passengers? Flight MH370 left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing at 00:41 local time on Saturday (16:41 GMT on Friday). But radio contact was lost at 17:30 GMT, somewhere between Malaysia and Vietnam. Officials say they still have no idea what went wrong. Malaysian military officials said on Sunday they were widening the search area because of indications the plane, a Boeing 777-200ER, may have turned back from its scheduled route shortly before vanishing from radar screens. Investigators are looking at all angles, including a possible terror attack. Counter-terrorism agencies and the FBI are involved in the operation. Five passengers booked on the flight did not board, and their luggage was consequently removed. The passengers on the flight were of 14 different nationalities. Two-thirds were from China, while others were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe. British engineering company Rolls-Royce has confirmed that the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was powered by two Trent 800 engines, built in Derby. Malaysia Airlines is the countrys national carrier, flying nearly 37,000 passengers daily to some 80 destinations worldwide. On Monday, shares in Malaysia Airlines fell 18% to a record low. Map
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 13:16:28 +0000
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