Terrorism not ruled out
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail Shanghai Daily, March 9, 2014
Vietnamese air force planes yesterday spotted two large oil slicks close to where a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 went missing earlier in the day, the first sign that the aircraft carrying 239 people had crashed.
The air force planes were part of a multinational search operation launched after Flight MH370 fell off radar screens less than an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early yesterday morning.
The oil slicks were spotted late last night off the southern tip of Vietnam and were each between 10 kilometers and 15 kilometers long, the Vietnamese government said in a statement.
There was no confirmation that the slicks were related to the missing plane, but the statement said they were consistent with the kinds that would be produced by the two fuel tanks of a crashed jetliner.
Two-thirds of the missing plane's passengers were from China, while others were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.
Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said there was no indication that the pilots had sent a distress signal, suggesting that whatever happened to the plane occurred quickly and possibly catastrophically.
Asked whether terrorism was suspected, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said, “We are looking at all possibilities, but it is too early to make any conclusive remarks.”
Foreign ministry officials in Italy and Austria said the names of two nationals from those countries listed on the flight's manifest matched passports reported stolen in Thailand.
Italy's Foreign Ministry said the Italian man who was listed as being a passenger, Luigi Maraldi, was traveling in Thailand and was not aboard the plane. It said he reported his passport stolen last August.
Austria's Foreign Ministry confirmed that a name listed on the manifest matched an Austrian passport reported stolen two years ago in Thailand. It said the Austrian was not on the plane, but would not confirm the person's identity.
At Beijing's airport, authorities posted a notice asking relatives and friends of passengers to gather at a nearby hotel to wait for further information, and provided a shuttle bus service.
The plane was last detected on radar at 1:30am around where the South China Sea meets the Gulf of Thailand, authorities in Malaysia and Vietnam said.
Lai Xuan Thanh, director of Vietnam's civil aviation authority, said air traffic officials in the country never made contact with the plane.
The plane "lost all contact and radar signal one minute before it entered Vietnam's air traffic control," Lieutenant General Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese army, said.
China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia all sent ships and planes to the region for rescue efforts.
China has put other ships and aircraft on standby, said Transport Minister Yang Chuantang.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing that China was "extremely worried" about the fate of the plane and those on board.
The US Navy says itdispatched a warship to aid in the search for the jetliner.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said that Malaysia had dispatched 15 planes and nine ships to the area. The US Navy was also sending aircraft.
It’s not uncommon for it to take several days to find the wreckage of aircraft floating on the ocean. Locating and then recovering the flight data recorders can take months or even years.
"In times of emergencies like this, we have to show unity of efforts that transcends boundaries and issues," said Lieutenant General Roy Deveraturda, commander of the Philippine military's Western Command.
After the slick was spotted, the air search was suspended for the night, due to resume this morning, while the sea search was ongoing, Malaysia Airlines said.
The plane was carrying 227 passengers, including two infants, and 12 crew members, the airline said. It said there were 154 passengers from China, 38 from Malaysia, seven from Indonesia, six from Australia, five from India, three from the US, and others from France, New Zealand, Canada, Ukraine, Russia and the Netherlands.
In Kuala Lumpur, family members gathered at the airport, but were kept away from reporters.
"Our team is currently calling the next of kin of passengers and crew. The focus of the airline is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support," said Yahya, the airline CEO.
Fuad Sharuji, Malaysia Airlines' vice president of operations control, told CNN that the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,670 meters when it disappeared and that the pilots had reported no problem with the aircraft.
Airliner "black boxes," flight data and cockpit voice recorders, are equipped with "pingers" that emit ultrasonic signals that can be detected underwater. Under good conditions, the signals can be detected from several hundred miles away, said John Goglia, a former member of the US National Transportation Safety Board.
But if the boxes are trapped inside the wreckage, the sound may not travel as far, he said.
Malaysia Airlines said the 53-year-old pilot of Flight MH370, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, has more than 18,000 flying hours and has been flying for the airline since 1981. The first officer, 27-year-old Fariq Hamid, has 2,800 hours of experience and has flown for the airline since 2007.
The tip of the wing of the same Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777-200ER broke off in 2012, as it was taxiing at Pudong International Airport outside Shanghai. The wingtip collided with the tail of a China Eastern Airlines A340 plane. No one was injured.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)