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A search is under way in waters between Malaysia and Vietnam after a Malaysia Airlines plane
vanished on a flight to Beijing, with 239 people on board.
Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that flight MH370 had disappeared at 02:40 local
time on Saturday (18:40 GMT on Friday) after leaving Kuala Lumpur.
It had been expected to land in Beijing at 06:30 (22:30 GMT).
Malaysia's transport minister said there was no information on wreckage and he urged against
speculation. "We are doing everything in our power to locate
the plane. We are doing everything we can to ensure every possible angle has been addressed,"
Seri Hishammuddin told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
"Our hope is that the people understand we are being as transparent as we can, we are
giving information as quickly as we can, but we want to make sure information has been
verified." Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari
Yahya said the focus was on helping the families of those missing. He said that 80% of the
families had been contacted. The plane went off the radar south of Vietnam,
according to a statement on the Vietnamese government website.
Its last known location was off the country's Ca Mau peninsular although the exact position
was not clear, it said. The Boeing B777-200 aircraft was carrying
227 passengers, including two children, and 12 crew members.
'Very worried' A plane, two helicopters and four vessels
have been dispatched by Malaysia to search the seas off its east coast in the South China
Sea, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
Vietnam also launched a search while the Philippines said it was sending three navy patrol boats
and a surveillance plane, AFP adds, and China sent two ships.
The passengers were of 14 different nationalities, Mr Jauhari said.
Among them were 152 Chinese nationals, 38 Malaysians, 12 people from Indonesia and six
from Australia. The pilot was Capt Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53,
who joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981, Mr Yahya said.
A Vietnamese navy official told the BBC the plane had gone missing within Malaysian maritime
territory. Friends and relatives expecting to meet passengers
from the flight in Beijing were instructed to go to a nearby hotel where officials were
meant to be on hand to provide support. The Associated Press reported a woman weeping
on a shuttle bus who was heard to say on a mobile phone: "They want us to go to the hotel.
It cannot be good." The plane had been flying at an altitude of
35,000ft (10,700m) and the pilots had not reported any problems with the aircraft, Fuad
Sharuji, Malaysian Airlines' vice-president of operations control, told CNN.