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New reports claim Malaysia Airlines plane may have been flying for more than five hours after it disappeared.
According to a BBC report, it is believed the plane was sending automated signals to a satellite system long after radar contact was lost.
This would mean flight MH370 could have flown more than 1,000 miles beyond its last confirmed position.
On Friday, US surveillance teams were sent to the Indian Ocean, much further west than the initial searches
The Indian navy has also been asked to search an area in the Bay of Bengal off India’s Chennai coast, Malaysian authorities said on Friday.
Flight MH370 vanished last Saturday with 239 people on board.
The plane – which was supposed to be flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur – last made contact with air traffic control over the South China Sea to the east of Malaysia.
Malaysia Airlines plane may have been flying for more than five hours after it disappeared
However, the BBC understands that a satellite system operated by London-based telecommunications company Inmarsat received an automated signal from flight MH370 at least five hours after the plane was reported lost.
The signal could only have been sent if the plane was intact and powered, and may explain why search teams have moved to the Indian Ocean.
Earlier, US media outlets also quoted unnamed officials as saying that the Boeing 777 was “pinging” satellites for hours after its last contact with air traffic controllers.
White House spokesman Jay Carney has confirmed that US teams were shifting their focus to the Indian Ocean because of “new information”, but gave no further details.
Malaysia has not yet commented on the latest claims.
The US – one of a number of countries helping to search for the plane – has sent a navy destroyer and a sophisticated surveillance aircraft to the Indian Ocean.
The Indian navy, air force and coast guard are also now involved after a request from the Malaysian government.
Indian naval spokesman DK Sharma said on Friday that six ships and five aircraft were scouring the Andaman Sea.
Malaysian authorities later said that India’s Eastern Naval Command was to search an area of sea 3,500 sq miles off the Chennai coast.
China said on Friday it was sending a patrol ship to the Malacca Strait, west of Malaysia, after a fruitless search in the Gulf in Thailand.
The official Xinhua news agency said experts and officials had met on Friday and “analyzed new information”, but did not give details.
Some 153 of the passengers on board the plane were Chinese, and Beijing has been pressing Malaysia to intensify its search.
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US surveillance teams have been sent to the Indian Ocean to help search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, after claims emerged that it may have flown for longer than investigators had thought.
Unnamed officials said flight MH370 sent signals to satellites for up to five hours after its apparent disappearance.
However, investigators stressed that the information was not conclusive.
Rescuers have so far failed to find any trace of flight MH370, which vanished last Saturday with 239 people on board.
The plane, which was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, last made contact with air-traffic control over the South China Sea to the east of Malaysia.
US surveillance teams have been sent to the Indian Ocean to help search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane
The US, which is one of a number of countries helping in the search for the plane, has sent a navy destroyer and a sophisticated surveillance aircraft to the Indian Ocean, hundreds of miles west of Malaysia.
The Indian navy, air force and coast guard are also now assisting after a request for help from the Malaysian government.
Several US media reports on Thursday cited unnamed officials as saying that the Boeing 777 was “pinging” satellites for hours after its last contact with air-traffic controllers.
That led searchers to believe the plane could have flown more than 1,000 miles beyond its last confirmed radar sighting.
White House spokesman Jay Carney confirmed that US teams were shifting their focus to the Indian Ocean because of “new information”, but he gave no further details.
Some 153 of the passengers on board the Malaysia Airlines plane were Chinese, and Beijing has been putting pressure on Malaysia to intensify its search.
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Malaysia’s civil aviation chief has said the planes sent Thursday to check the spot where Chinese satellite images showed possible debris from the missing flight MH370 found nothing.
“There is nothing. We went there, there is nothing,” Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
Adding to the mystery, The Wall Street Journal reported that US investigators suspect the plane flew on for four hours once it lost contact with air traffic controllers, based on data from the plane’s engines that are automatically downloaded and transmitted to the ground as part of routine maintenance programs.
The report, based on two anonymous sources, raises questions as to why the Boeing 777 would have been flying without passive or active contact with the ground, and if anyone would have been in control during that time. US counterterrorism officials are considering whether a pilot or someone else on board intentionally disabled the jetliner’s transponders to avoid detection and divert it, the report said.
The hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane has been punctuated by false leads since it disappeared with 239 people aboard about an hour after leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early Saturday.
The plane was heading northeast over the Gulf of Thailand toward Vietnam when vanished.
Shortly after that it fell off commercial radar, but military authorities say it might have turned west and flown into the northern stretches of the Strait of Malacca based on unconfirmed traces seen on its air defense radar.
Dozens of ships and aircraft from 12 nations have been searching the Gulf of Thailand and the strait, but no trace has been found. The search area has grown to 35,800 square miles, or about the size of Portugal.
Malaysia found nothing at the spot where Chinese satellite images showed possible debris from the missing flight MH370 (photo PRC)
If the Wall Street Journal report is confirmed, the search area will have to significantly expand.
The Chinese satellite imagery showing possible debris was not far from where the last confirmed position of the plane was between Malaysia and Vietnam. The images and coordinates were posted on the website of China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.
China’s state Xinhua News Agency said the images from around 11 a.m. on Sunday appear to show “three suspected floating objects” of varying sizes in a 12-mile radius, the largest about 79-by-72 feet off the southern tip of Vietnam.
Li Jiaxiang, chief of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said later China had yet to confirm any link between the suspected floating objects and the plane.
Pham Quy Tieu, deputy transport minister, told The Associated Press that the area had been “searched thoroughly” by forces from other countries over the past few days. Doan Huu Gia, chief of air search and rescue coordination center, said Malaysian and Singaporean aircraft were scheduled to visit the area again Thursday.
Malaysian authorities have come under fire for their handling of the search amid sometimes confusing and conflicting statements, including the time of the plane’s disappearance. Officials had also said that five passengers had checked into the flight but did not board the plane, and their luggage had been removed, but later they said this was not true.
Malaysia’s air force chief said Wednesday that an unidentified object appears on military radar records about 200 miles northwest of Penang, Malaysia, and experts are analyzing the data to determine whether the blip is the missing plane.
Authorities have not ruled out any possible cause, including mechanical failure, pilot error, sabotage and terrorism, and they are waiting to find any wreckage or debris to determine what went wrong.
Two US Federal Aviation Administration technical experts and a regional representative are in Kuala Lumpur as part of a National Transportation Safety Board team supporting the investigation.
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A Chinese government website has released satellite images of possible debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
The three images show what appear to be large, floating objects in the South China Sea. Previous sightings of possible debris have proved fruitless.
Malaysia Airlines plane went missing on Friday with 239 people on board.
The aircraft vanished about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur as it flew south of Vietnam’s Ca Mau peninsula.
No distress signal or message was sent.
China has released satellite images of possible debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 (photo PRC)
The three images were taken on Sunday, a day after the plane disappeared, but were only released on Wednesday on the website of China’s State Administration for Science.
Map co-ordinates place the objects in the South China Sea east of Malaysia and off the southern tip of Vietnam.
China’s official Xinhua news agency says the largest of the objects measures about 24m x 22m (78ft x 72ft).
China has deployed several high-resolution satellites – controlled from the Xian Satellite Control Centre in northern China – to help search for the jet, the People’s Liberation Army said on Tuesday.
Earlier, Malaysian authorities revealed that the last communication from the jet suggested everything was normal on board.
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Malaysian authorities have unveiled the last communication received from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.
The message suggests everything was normal on board minutes before the plane went missing over the South China Sea.
Flight MH370 replied: “All right, roger that” to a radio message from Malaysian air control, authorities said.
The search has been widened to waters off both sides of the peninsula.
Malaysia’s air force chief has denied reports the plane was tracked to the Malacca Strait in the west.
The China-bound plane went missing on Saturday with 239 people on board.
The plane vanished about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, as it flew over the South China Sea, south of Vietnam’s Ca Mau peninsula. No distress signal or message was sent.
Malaysian authorities revealed the plane’s last communication at a news conference held in Beijing for relatives of the 154 Chinese who are among the missing passengers.
Malaysian authorities have unveiled the last communication received from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane
As the plane reached the boundary between Malaysian and Vietnamese airspace, the Malaysian air control announced it was handing over to Ho Chi Minh City Control.
Minutes later, all contact with Flight MH370 was lost.
China’s foreign ministry said there was “too much confusion” regarding the information released about the plane’s flight path.
“It is very hard for us to decide whether a given piece of information is accurate,” spokesman Qin Gang told reporters in Beijing.
Earlier on Wednesday, Malaysia’s air force chief Rodzali Daud denied remarks attributed to him in local media that flight was tracked by military radar to the Malacca Strait, far west of its planned route.
Gen. Rodzali Daud said he “did not make any such statements”, but the air force had “not ruled out the possibility of an air turn-back”.
Early search efforts focused on waters between Malaysia and Vietnam.
The search was later extended to the Malacca Strait and the Andaman Sea, off Malaysia’s west coast, amid reports that the plane could have turned back.
Operations are now covering some 27,000 square nautical miles.
Malaysian authorities on Wednesday requested assistance from India in searching the Andaman Sea, north of the Malacca Strait.
Vietnam has confirmed an investigation into a possible sighting of the plane has so far yielded no results.
Vietnam’s air traffic management earlier said it had received an email from a New Zealander working in one of the oil rigs off Vung Tau.
“He said he spotted a burning [object] at that location, some 300 km [200 miles] southeast of Vung Tau,” deputy general director Doan Huu Gia said.
Officials still do not know what went wrong with the aircraft, and several leads pursued so far have proven not to be linked to the plane.
According to new reports, confusion over missing Malaysia Airlines plane’s last known location has deepened.
Malaysia’s air force chief has denied reports that the plane was tracked to the Malacca Strait in the west.
Now, search teams are scouring waters off both sides of the Malaysian peninsula.
Vietnam has dispatched a plane to investigate an eyewitness report of a possible object burning in the sky east of Vietnam.
Flight MH370 went missing on Saturday. It had 239 people on board.
Authorities have been searching for the plane, which disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, for the past five days.
Earlier this week, Malaysia widened the search for the missing plane amid conflicting reports on its last known position.
The Malaysian authorities initially said flight MH370 disappeared about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, as it flew over the South China Sea, south of Vietnam’s Ca Mau peninsula. No distress signal or message was sent.
Search teams are scouring waters off both sides of the Malaysian peninsula, amid confusion over missing jet’s last known location (photo AP)
Early search efforts focused on waters between Malaysia and Vietnam.
The search was later extended to the Malacca Strait and the Andaman Sea, off Malaysia’s west coast, amid reports that the plane could have turned back.
On Wednesday, Malaysia’s air force chief Rodzali Daud denied remarks attributed to him in local media that a missing Malaysia Airlines plane was tracked by military radar to the Malacca Strait, far west of its planned route.
Gen. Rodzali Daud said he “did not make any such statements”, but the air force had “not ruled out the possibility of an air turn-back”.
On Wednesday, authorities also began searching the Andaman Sea, north of the Malacca Strait.
“We are not going to leave any chance. We have to look at every possibility,” Malaysian civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told AFP news agency, without indicating why the search was expanded north.
Malaysia had requested assistance from India in searching areas near the Andaman Sea, India’s foreign ministry said.
Meanwhile, Vietnam said it had deployed aircraft to investigate a possible sighting of the plane.
Doan Huu Gia, deputy general director of Vietnam’s air traffic management, said: “We received an email from a New Zealander who works on one of the oil rigs off Vung Tau.
“He said he spotted a burning [object] at that location, some 300 km southeast of Vung Tau.”
Officials still do not know what went wrong with the aircraft, and several leads pursued so far have proven not to be linked to the plane.
At least 40 ships and 34 aircraft from several different countries are taking part in the search for the plane.
Two-thirds of the passengers on board the plane were Chinese. Some were from a range of other Asian countries, North America or Europe.
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According to military radars, the missing Malaysia Airlines plane turned west, away from its planned route, before vanishing, Malaysia’s air force says.
Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing went missing on Saturday, after taking off with 239 people on board.
The international search for any wreckage has been widened.
The missing Malaysia Airlines plane turned west, away from its planned route, before vanishing
Earlier, it emerged two men travelling on stolen passports on board the plane were Iranians with no apparent links to terrorist groups, officials said.
One of the men is believed to have been migrating to Germany.
The Malaysian authorities initially said flight MH370 disappeared about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), as it flew over the South China Sea, south of Vietnam’s Ca Mau peninsula.
No distress signal or message was sent, but it is believed the plane attempted to turn back, perhaps towards Kuala Lumpur.
Officials still do not know what went wrong with the aircraft.
None of the debris and oil slicks spotted in the South China Sea or Malacca Strait so far have proved to be linked to the disappearance.
Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese. Others were from various Asian countries, North America or Europe.
Relatives have expressed frustration at the lack of information about the plane’s fate.
At least 40 ships and 34 aircraft are taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia.
Search teams from Australia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, New Zealand and the United States of America are assisting.
The search is being conducted on both sides of the Malay Peninsula.
The area has been expanded from 50 nautical miles (57 miles) from where the plane disappeared – over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam – to 100 nautical miles.
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Malaysian police named one of the two men who travelled on the missing Malaysia Airlines plane on a stolen passport as Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, 18, and said he was probably migrating to Germany.
Interpol identified the other man as Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza, 29.
Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad and Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza have been identified as the two men travelling on stolen passports on MH370 flight
Experts have said the presence of two people with stolen passports on a plane was a breach of security, but one that is relatively common in a region regarded as a hub for illegal migration.
Malaysian police say the younger Iranian was “not likely to be a member of a terrorist group”, adding that the authorities were in contact with his mother in Germany, who had been expecting her son to arrive in Frankfurt.
Interpol says the two men travelled from Qatar’s capital Doha on their Iranian passports, and switched to stolen Italian and Austrian passports to board the Malaysia Airlines flight.
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One of the persons travelling on a stolen passport on missing Malaysia Airlines jet was a young Iranian who is not believed to have terrorist links, Malaysian police say.
Police say the 19-year-old – named as Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad – was probably migrating to Germany.
Investigations are continuing into a second man using stolen documents.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing went missing on Saturday, after taking off with 239 on board. The search has been widened.
Experts have said the presence of two people with stolen passports on a plane was a breach of security, but is relatively common in a region regarded as a hub for illegal migration.
Malaysia’s police chief Inspector Gen Khalid Abu Bakar said the young Iranian was “not likely to be a member of a terrorist group”, adding that the authorities were in contact with his mother in Germany, who had been expecting her son to arrive in Frankfurt.
He says the friend and another Iranian, also using a stolen passport, stayed with him before taking the Malaysia Airlines flight, and that they had hoped to settle in Europe.
One of the persons travelling on a stolen passport on missing Malaysia Airlines jet was a young Iranian who is not believed to have terrorist links
Reports from Thailand suggest that the tickets of the two men, routing them to Amsterdam via Beijing, had been bought through a Thai travel agent and an Iranian middleman.
Officials say they still have no idea what went wrong with the aircraft.
None of the debris and oil slicks spotted in the water so far have proved to be linked to the disappearance.
Four areas of investigation were focused on the possibility of human agency, the police chief said: hijacking, sabotage, psychological problems or personal problems with passengers or crew.
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.
At least 40 ships and 34 aircraft are taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia.
Search teams from Australia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, New Zealand and the United States of America are assisting.
Malaysian civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said the search was being conducted “on both sides” of the peninsula.
The area has been expanded from 50 nautical miles from where the plane had disappeared – over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam – to 100 nautical miles (115 miles).
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Malaysian authorities have been urged by China to “step up its efforts” in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared on Saturday.
Most of the passengers on board of flight MH370 were Chinese nationals.
Nearly three days after the aircraft went missing, an international effort has still not found the plane’s wreckage.
None of the debris and oil slicks spotted in the water so far have proven to be linked to the disappearance.
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.
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 i[ 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.
Earlier, 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 [plane’s] 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 victim’s relative – Guo Qishun, whose son-in-law was on the plane – said he did not see the point of flying to Malaysia.
“We don’t 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 don’t speak English,” he told the Associated Press news agency.
Malaysian authorities have identified one of the two men travelling on the missing plane on stolen passports.
Flight MH370 vanished from radar almost three days ago en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur
Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said they could not reveal his identity, but confirmed the man was a non-Malaysian.
Malaysia’s 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 search area has been widened to include waters in the Strait of Malacca.
Commander William Marks from the US Seventh Fleet, which is taking part in the search, says he expects the plane’s 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 that’s typically what those black boxes contain.”
There are now 40 ships and 34 aircraft from nine different nations taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia.
US Navy officials earlier said their aircraft had not seen any debris associated with commercial aircraft wreckage.
Flight MH370 left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing at 00:41 local time on Saturday. But radio contact was lost at 01:30, 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.
Malaysia Airlines is the country’s 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.
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One of the most alarming pieces of information to come out of Malaysia Airlines plane mystery is how easy it may be to use a stolen passport to board an international flight.
Two passengers using passports on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight were recorded in Interpol’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database, the international police organization confirmed on Sunday.
Vietnam’s navy planes have spotted possible debris of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared almost two days ago.
Officials said it was too dark to be certain the objects were from Flight MH370, which had 239 people on board.
A multinational team is searching for wreckage and ships will try to confirm the find after dawn.
Investigators are also checking CCTV footage of two passengers who were travelling on stolen passports.
There are now 40 ships and 34 aircraft from nine different nations taking part in the search for the missing plane in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia.
Other teams are investigating the identities of some of the people onboard.
Malaysia’s civil aviation chief, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, said five passengers booked on the flight did not board and their luggage was consequently removed.
It has also been confirmed that two passengers were travelling on stolen passports.
The passengers – travelling with Italian and Austrian passports that had been stolen in Thailand – purchased their plane tickets at the same time, and were both booked on the same onward flight from Beijing to Europe on Saturday.
Luigi Maraldi’s passport went missing in Thailand last year and was reported shortly thereafter (photo EPA)
Both had purchased their tickets from China Southern Airlines, which shared the flight with Malaysia Airlines, and they had consecutive ticket numbers.
Both tickets were bought at identical prices in Thai currency, according to China’s official e-ticket verification system.
European authorities on Saturday confirmed the names and nationalities of the two stolen passports: One was an Italian-issued document bearing the name Luigi Maraldi, the other Austrian under the name Christian Kozel.
A telephone operator on a China-based KLM hotline on Sunday confirmed to Reuters “Luigi Maraldi” and “Christian Kozel” were both booked to leave Beijing on a KLM flight to Amsterdam on March 8.
“Luigi Maraldi” was then to fly to Copenhagen on KLM on March 8, and “Christian Kozel” to Frankfurt on March 8. She said the pair booked the tickets through China Southern Airlines so she had no information on where they bought them.
“Whilst it is too soon to speculate about any connection between these stolen passports and the missing plane, it is clearly of great concern that any passenger was able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in Interpol databases,” the Secretary General of international police agency Interpol, Ronald Noble, said in a statement.
Ronald Noble said no checks of Interpol’s database had been made for either passport between the time they were stolen and the departure of the flight, and expressed frustration that few of Interpol’s 190 member countries “systematically” search the database.
Given their travel itinerary, it’s just as possible that the misidentified flyers were drug mules as terrorists.
The passport of the Italian man was stolen last year. Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Weiss said the passport of the Austrian man was stolen two years ago. Both documents went missing in Thailand and were reported shortly thereafter, according to Interpol.
Passports reported lost or stolen are invalidated and, technically, can no longer be used for travel – yet individuals, including members of terrorist organizations, still manage to get across international borders with falsified travel documents.
Such documents are often obtained on the black market and put to use after a photograph swap. Investigations into the operations of terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda showed that operatives traveled with falsified travel documents.
Malaysia’s Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said all angles were being examined in the search for the what happened, but he added: “The main thing here for me and for the families concerned is that we find the aircraft.”
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.
Malaysia Airlines is the country’s national carrier, and one of Asia’s largest fleets, flying nearly 37,000 passengers daily to some 80 destinations worldwide.
Correspondents say the route between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing has become more and more popular as Malaysia and China increase trade.
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New details have emerged about some of 227 passengers and 12 crew on board Malaysia Airlines’ Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing that has been missing since early Saturday.
There were 14 different nationalities on the Boeing 777 that mysteriously vanished south of Vietnam without sending a distress call.
The vast majority – 153 people – were Chinese citizens, according to the Malaysia Airlines passenger manifest.
Among them was a 19-member group of prominent artists, who were returning home after an exhibition in the Malaysian capital.
Everyone in the group, led by Hou Bo, was “very famous in China”, exhibition organiser Daniel Liau was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper.
Some were China’s leading calligraphy artists, he added.
Another eight Chinese nationals as well as 12 Malaysians were employees of America’s Freescale Semiconductor company.
It is also known that five children – aged two to four – were on board the plane: three Chinese and two Americans.
There were 14 different nationalities on Malaysia Airlines flight that mysteriously vanished south of Vietnam
The third American was identified as Philip Wood – a 51-year-old IBM employee from Texas.
The oldest person on the board the plane was 79.
The pilot, who led the 12-member crew, was named by Malaysia Airlines as Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, joined the carrier in 1981 and had 18,365 hours of flight experience.
But, perhaps, the most puzzling questions remain over the true identities of two people registered as Austria’s Christian Kozel and Luigi Maraldi of Italy.
The foreign ministries in Vienna and Rome later said the two men were not in fact on the plane.
It is understood that their passports have either been stolen or lost in Thailand in recent years.
Malaysian officials say international counter-terrorism agencies from a number of countries have joined an investigation and all angles are now being examined.
Manifest for Flight MH370
- 153 Chinese
- 38 Malaysians
- 7 Indonesians
- 6 Australians
- 5 Indians
- 4 French
- 3 Americans
- 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
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According to new reports, Vietnamese navy planes have spotted possible debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared almost two days ago.
Officials said it was too dark to be certain the objects were from Flight MH370, which had 239 people on board.
A multinational team is searching for wreckage and ships will try to confirm the find after dawn.
Investigators are also checking CCTV footage of two passengers who were travelling on stolen passports.
Malaysian military officials said on Sunday that the plane may have turned back from its scheduled route shortly before vanishing from radar screens, further deepening the mystery surrounding its fate.
Relatives of the missing passengers of Malaysia Airlines flight have been told to prepare for the worst
Relatives of the missing passengers have been told to prepare for the worst.
Flight MH730 left Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing, at 00:41 local time on Saturday. But radio contact was lost at 01:30, somewhere between Malaysia and Vietnam.
Late on Sunday, the Vietnamese authorities said possible debris from the plane had been spotted in the sea off south Vietnam.
“We received information from a Vietnamese plane saying that they found two broken objects, which seem like those of an aircraft, located about 50 miles to the south-west of Tho Chu Island,” an unnamed official from the National Committee for Search and Rescue told AFP news agency.
“As it is night they cannot fish them out for proper identification. They have located the position of the areas and flown back to the land,” he added.
The potential debris was in a similar area to a possible oil slick seen by Vietnamese navy planes on Saturday, but officials have cautioned that this too may be nothing to do with the disappearance of Flight MH370.
There are now 40 ships and 34 aircraft from nine different nations taking part in the search for the missing plane in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia.
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Malaysia Airlines plane that has been missing for more than 24 hours may have turned back, radar signals showed.
Rescue teams looking for the plane have now widened their search area.
Investigators are also checking CCTV footage of two passengers who are believed to have boarded the plane using stolen passports.
Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared south of Vietnam with 239 people on board.
Air and sea rescue teams have been searching an area of the South China Sea south of Vietnam for more than 24 hours.
Malaysia’s civil aviation chief, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur the search area had been expanded, to include the west coast of Malaysia.
Five passengers booked on the flight did not board, he added. Their luggage was consequently removed.
Twenty-two aircraft and 40 ships are now involved in the search, armed forces chief Gen. Zulkefli Zin said.
Malaysia Airlines plane that has been missing for more than 24 hours may have turned back, radar signals showed
Air force chief Rodzali Daud said the investigation was now focusing on a recording of radar signals that showed there was a “possibility” the aircraft had turned back from its flight path.
Vietnamese navy ships which reached two oil slicks spotted earlier in the South China Sea found no signs of wreckage.
Malaysia’s Transport Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, initially said at least four names on the passenger list were “suspect”.
However, he later said there were in fact only two suspect names.
Reports suggest two of the passengers listed as travelling – an Italian and an Austrian – were not actually on the flight.
They had both reportedly had their passports stolen in Thailand in recent years.
Hishammuddin Hussein said international agencies including the FBI had joined the investigation and all angles were being examined.
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.
When he was asked earlier whether terrorism was suspected as a reason for the plane’s disappearance, Malaysian PM Najib Razak said: “We are looking at all possibilities but it is too early to make any conclusive remarks.”
Malaysia Airlines plane vanished at 01:30 local time on Saturday, March 8.
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According to new reports, US officials are investigating terrorism concerns after revelations that two people apparently boarded the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner with stolen passports.
The officials told NBC News that they had found no clear link to terrorism. There are other criminal reasons, for example drug smuggling, that stolen passports might be used to board a plane.
Two names on the passenger manifest of the plane, Malaysia Flight 370, matched passports reported stolen in Thailand, one from an Italian man and the other from an Austrian man, according to foreign governments.
The news, hours after the Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared over the South China Sea with 239 people on board, significantly changed how US officials looked at the disaster. The officials said they were checking into passenger manifests and going back through intelligence.
There was still no sign of wreckage more than 24 hours after air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane, a red-eye from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing.
The aircraft vanished in relatively clear weather, without sending a distress signal, at what analysts said would have been cruising altitude. In a possible clue, Vietnamese planes spotted two oil slicks consistent with jet fuel in the water off Vietnam.
Malaysia Airlines asked the world to pray for flight MH370 missing over South China Sea
On board were 227 passengers and 12 crew. Most of the passengers were Chinese. Three were Americans – one adult and two children, according to the passenger manifest.
Search teams from Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and China were looking for wreckage, and the US sent a naval destroyer into the South China Sea to help. The air search was called off during the night but was to resume at daylight Sunday, or early Saturday evening Eastern time.
The Italian on the passenger list was Luigi Maraldi, 37. His father, Walter Maraldi, told NBC News on Saturday that Luigi was vacationing in Thailand and had called to check in.
Walter Maraldi said his son had his passport stolen a year ago in Thailand.
In Austria, the foreign ministry confirmed that police had made contact with a citizen who was also on the passenger list, and who reported his passport stolen two years ago.
“We believe that the name and passport were used by an unidentified person to board the plane,” a spokesman for the ministry said.
It is unusual, but not unheard of, for one person to board a plane with a stolen passport. It is very rare for two people with stolen passports to board the same plane, terrorism analysts say.
Asked earlier whether terrorism was suspected in the disappearance of the jet, Malaysian PM Najib Razak said authorities were “looking at all possibilities,” The Associated Press reported.
Malaysia has not seen significant terrorist activity, and airport security there has tended to be exemplary.
The investigation will probably take some time, partly because authorities would have to find wreckage and perform forensics tests. In the crash of TWA Flight 800, in 1996, it took more than a year to rule out terrorism.
While flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders, the so-called black boxes, can emit signals from underwater, it can be extremely difficult to find planes that disappear over the sea.
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South-East Asian states have joined forces to search the South China Sea for the Malaysia Airlines jet missing with 239 people on board.
Flight MH370 vanished at 02:40 local time Saturday after leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing.
The aerial search has been halted for the night but sea operations continue.
No wreckage has been reported by the airline, but Vietnamese planes reported seeing oil slicks in the sea.
The Vietnamese government said two slicks, about 9 miles long, were consistent with those that could be left by an airliner and had been detected off southern Vietnam.
However, there is no confirmation the slicks relate to the missing plane.
Distraught relatives and loved ones of those aboard are being given assistance at the airports.
Distraught relatives and loved ones of those on board of Malaysia Airlines jet are being given assistance at the airports
“We are doing everything in our power to locate the plane,” Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
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 reportedly went off the radar south of Vietnam.
Its last known location was off the Ca Mau peninsula although the exact position was not clear.
The Boeing B777-200 aircraft was carrying 227 passengers, including two children, and 12 crew members.
Malaysia’s military said a second wave of helicopters and ships had been dispatched after an initial search revealed nothing. The US has agreed to help with its aircraft too, Malaysian PM Najb Razak said.
Territorial disputes over the South China Sea were set aside temporarily as China dispatched two maritime rescue ships and the Philippines deployed three air force planes and three navy patrol ships.
Singapore is also involved, while Vietnam sent aircraft and ships and asked fishermen in the area to report any suspected sign of the missing plane.
“In times of emergencies like this, we have to show unity of efforts that transcends boundaries and issues,” said Lt. Gen. Roy Deveraturda, commander of the Philippine military’s Western Command.
The passengers were of 14 different nationalities. 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.
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A Malaysia Airlines plane vanished on a flight to Beijing, with 239 people on board.
The search is under way in waters between Malaysia and Vietnam.
Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that flight MH370 had disappeared at 02:40 local time on Saturday after leaving Kuala Lumpur.
It had been expected to land in Beijing at 06:30.
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,” Hishammuddin Hussein 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 peninsula although the exact position was not clear, it said.
Malaysia Airlines plane vanished on a flight to Beijing, with 239 people on board
The Boeing B777-200 aircraft was carrying 227 passengers, including two children, and 12 crew members.
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, Jauhari Yahya said.
The pilot was Capt Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, who joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981, Jauhari Yahya said.
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 and the pilots had not reported any problems with the aircraft, Fuad Sharuji, Malaysian Airlines’ vice-president of operations control, told CNN.
Malaysia’s national carrier is one of Asia’s largest, flying nearly 37,000 passengers daily to some 80 destinations worldwide.
The route between Kuala Lumpur to Beijing has become more and more popular as Malaysia and China increase trade.
The Boeing 777 had not had a fatal crash in its 20-year history until an Asiana plane came down at San Francisco airport in July of last year. Three teenage girls from China died in that incident.
Boeing said in a statement posted on Twitter: “We’re closely monitoring reports on Malaysia flight MH370. Our thoughts are with everyone on board.”
Flight MH370 passengers
- 153 Chinese including one child
- 38 Malaysians
- 12 Indonesians
- 6 Australians
- 4 Americans including one child
- 3 French
- Two each from New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada
- One each from Russia, Italy, Taiwan, Netherlands and Austria
Source: Malaysia Airlines
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The British government has warned airlines not to allow Edward Snowden, an ex-CIA employee who leaked secret US surveillance details, to fly to the UK, according to reports.
The Associated Press news agency reported seeing a document at a Thai airport telling carriers to stop Edward Snowden, 29, boarding any flights.
The travel alert – reported to feature a Home Office letterhead – said Edward Snowden “is highly likely to be refused entry to the UK”.
The Home Office would not comment.
According to AP, the alert was issued on Monday by the Home Office’s risk and liaison overseas network.
The document had a photograph of Edward Snowden and gave his date of birth and passport number, the news agency reported.
It said: “If this individual attempts to travel to the UK: Carriers should deny boarding.”
The British government has warned airlines not to allow Edward Snowden to fly to the UK
It went on to warn airlines they may “be liable to costs relating to the individual’s detention and removal” should they allow him to travel.
According to the Home Office website, a charge for such a situation would be £2,000 ($3,130).
Bangkok Airways, Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines confirmed they had received the notice, which was not supposed to be seen by the public, AP reported.
The Home Office does have the power to block people’s entry to the UK in certain circumstances, such as if it believes it is in the public interest to do so.
The powers had been used in the past, including to deny entry to extremist preachers and extremist European politicians.
Edward Snowden was last seen in Hong Kong, where he travelled ahead of the Guardian newspaper’s stories revealing the extent of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) programme to take data from US internet and telephone firms.
There is no suggestion that he has any intention of trying to travel to the UK.
Edward Snowden’s actions have divided opinion in the US, with some calling him a hero and others calling for him to be tried for treason.
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