@ International - Malaysian Airliner Malaysias civil aviation chief has said the fate of a missing Malaysia Airlines jet remains a mystery. Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said officials had not ruled out hijacking as a cause of the planes disappearance. He said all reported sightings of debris from the plane in the seas south of Vietnam were unconfirmed. Malaysia Airlines 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. Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, who heads the department of civil aviation, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur: Unfortunately we have not found anything that appears to be objects from the aircraft, let alone the aircraft. He added that they were intensifying efforts to find the plane, and the search would take as long as it takes. We are every hour, every second looking at every area of the sea. There are now 40 ships and 34 aircraft from nine different nations taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia. Late on Sunday, the Vietnamese authorities said two objects had been sighted in waters south of Vietnam which appeared to resemble aircraft parts, including a door. The debris was in a similar area to a possible oil slick seen by Vietnamese navy planes on Saturday. As Alice Budisatrijo reports, Vietnamese ships are on standby to help at a naval base on the island of Pho Quoc But Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said on Monday that this sighting had never been officially verified and could not be confirmed. Samples of the oil had been collected and sent to a laboratory for analysis to see if it came from the plane, he said. US Navy officials earlier said their aircraft had not seen any debris associated with commercial aircraft wreckage. Passport theory 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 MH307, 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 MH307. 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. 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. Commander William Marks from the US Seventh Fleet, which is taking part in the search, told the BBC the search area covered hundreds of kilometres. Just from the air we can see things as small as almost the size of your hand, or a basketball. So its not a matter of if we can see it - its an extremely large area. Investigators are looking at all angles, including a possible terror attack. Counter-terrorism agencies and the FBI are involved in the operation. The focus has been on two passengers who boarded the flight using stolen passports. International police agency Interpol has confirmed the passengers were travelling with Italian and Austrian passports stolen in Thailand years ago. A military officer looks out of a window during a search and rescue mission onboard an aircraft belonging to the Vietnamese air force off Vietnams Tho Chu island, 10 March 2014 There are 40 ships and 34 aircraft from nine different nations taking part in the search Vietnamese helicopter prepares to join search, Phu Quoc (10 March 2014) The area being searched by air and sea covers hundreds of kilometres They had purchased their tickets at the same time from China Southern Airlines which shared the flight with Malaysia Airlines, had consecutive ticket numbers and were both booked on the same onward flight from Beijing to Europe on Saturday. Ronald Noble, the secretary general of Interpol, said in a statement that while it was too soon to speculate on any connection between the theft and the planes disappearance, it was clearly of great concern that any passenger was able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in Interpol databases. Five passengers booked on the flight did not board, and their luggage was consequently removed. 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? 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. China has sent a team of government officials to Kuala Lumpur to look into the case. The BBCs John Sudworth in Beijing says relatives waiting for news are getting increasingly frustrated, saying they are not getting information in a timely manner. They have complained that government officials have not visited the families, our correspondent adds. Meanwhile, Malaysian King Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah offered his condolences to the passengers. He said he and the Queen would like to express our sympathy to the passengers and crew, especially to their family. 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 Have you been affected by the story? Please get in touch using the form below. (Required) Name(Required) Your E-mail address(Required) Town & Country(Required) Your telephone number(Required) Comments If you are happy to be contacted by a BBC journalist please leave a telephone number that we can contact you on. In some cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location, unless you state otherwise. 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Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 08:31:06 +0000
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