Malaysian Airlines MH370 contact lost
 

The authorities have begun a search and rescue for Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 after the Beijing-bound plane lost contact with air traffic controllers this morning, the airline said today.

MAS said flight MH370 lost contact with Subang Air Traffic Control at 2.40am.

The B777-200 aircraft left the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12.41am and was expected to land in Beijing at 6.30am.


"The flight was carrying 227 passengers (including two infants), 12 crew members," the airline said in a statement.

"Malaysia Airlines is currently working with the authorities who have activated their search and rescue team to locate the aircraft," it added. – March 8, 2014.

B777-200 - ATC have lost all contact, search teams deployed. :sad:

Also just confirmed on Sky News at 00.26 today (Saturday 8th March)

Looks like the plane has already been missing for five to six hours but that details have only just been released to the press by the airline and/or local authorities

Sadly doesn't look at all hopeful.

This is potentially only the second hull loss of a 777 involving fatalities in flight despite more than 1,000 being in service and also potentially the first one ever involving the loss of all passengers and crew on board. Until the crash landing of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 at San Francisco International Airport on 6th July 2013 (resulting in the death of three passengers and the injury of most passengers on board, twelve with critical injuries) there had been no fatalities involving the hull loss of a Boeing 777. There were no fatalities but a significant number of injuries (none life threatening but one serious) when BA's 777-200ER (G-YMMM - serial number 30314) landed 270 metres (890 feet) short of runway 27L at London Heathrow on 17th January 2008.

Anyone know of the safety record of Malaysia Airlines? My own view would be quite a reputable airline?

From the airline's own website page at MH370 Flight Incident | Malaysia Airlines

Aircraft missing is 9M-MRO Boeing, B777-2H6 (ER) (B772) - cn: 28420

If FlightAware is correct (which it may not be), looks like it had just reached FL350 when contact was lost.

Flight Track Log ? MAS370 ? 08-Mar-2014 ? WMKK / KUL - ZBAA / PEK ? FlightAware

Anecdotally, it's great. Landed last month in BKI in the dark in heavy rain and extremely limited visibility (as a pax). Actually, pondered why they proceeded.

Eta: replying to query regarding MH's safety record

Just an update according to FR24, the flight was detected as landed 39 mins after it departed Kuala Lumpur, a flight tracker image released shows the last traceable information was within that time frame, it looks to me like two things;

Either complete radio failure
OR
The aircraft has gone down within Malaysia

However the first theorem is compounded by the fact the aircraft is missing past its arrival time in Beijing by nearly 2hrs 40mins well outside required reserves.

I just hope I'm wrong. :sad:

safety record is pretty good...
 

...from Wikipedia...not bad for an airlines of that size (100+) in the environment they are flying in...

4 December 1977 - Malaysia Airlines Flight 653, a Boeing 737-200 (9M-MBD) was hijacked and crashed in Tanjung Kupang, Johor, killing all 100 people aboard. It remains the deadliest crash of all time in Malaysia up to this day.

15 September 1995 - Malaysia Airlines Flight 2133, a Fokker 50 (9M-MGH) crashed during approach in Tawau, Sabah due to pilot error. 34 people were killed.[73]

any wx info for route of flight?

Flightware shows that it did not go far. Would coverage be that limited there? Or, would the search area be that close to their departure?

Last data from ADS-B is about an hour before at FL350 half way across the Gulf (although seems others say different).

Company Facebook statement here.

Really hoping for some good news :(

I can assume that there is no signal from the ELT. So unless they pulled it out, I doubt any good news will be forthcoming. :(

AQIS Boigu Thanks for the information!

China Authorities have confirmed the flight never entered Chinese Airspace, and FlightAware have said the last recorded information shows the aircraft at 35,000 ft and 468kts - Information for MH370 was lost 20mins after departure :(

Unless my timezone maths is wrong the last data from FR24 is about 1hr 40min before LOC with atc. So assuming they carried on they would be over central Vietnam.

Lots of other planes showing up on the map in the region so either the transponder stopped for some reason or (more likely) the data never made it to FR24.

Flight Aware often does not have complete data. Airline statement says they departed at 12:41am and lost contact about two hours later at 2:40am. Looking at the Flight Aware estimated positions (at 1:42 since that data set has departure at 11:43am), they would have been flying above the mountains/jungles of south central Laos about that time, around 200Km due west of Da Nang, Vietnam. Not good news at all.

Man I hope this guy is correct.


Ridzuan Chan Abd Rzd Latest unofficial update. Landed in Nan Ming - cockpit electronics malfunction...yet to b confirmed.
11 · 8 minutes ago

Reports now saying airline has begun notifying next of kin. Doesn't sound good.

So any reasons why the ads-b data would have cutout over an hour before they reported LOC to radar somewhere over Vietnam? (Beyond just spotty web based tracking tools...)

For the plane to have landed in the NanMing district of China, it would have had to traverse Laos, VietNam and several hundred miles of China. This simply seems unlikely as the Chinese have stated they have never tracked this flight.

From Sydney Morning Herald
 

"The missing plane is believed to have been involved in a crash in August, 2012, when it damaged the tail of a China Eastern Airlines plane at Shanghai Pudong Airport, according to unconfirmed reports.

....in the incident, the tip of the wing of the Malaysia Air
lines Boeing 777 broke off..."

Malaysia Airlines plane missing with more than 200 passengers on board

Correction:: Took off at 12:41; Lost contact at 2:40

Not sure why people are referring to Flight Aware... Flight Radar24 had the aircraft last position about halfway between the coast of Malaysia and the coast of Vietnam. Interestingly, following and preceding aircraft at the same route and level are in full coverage.

The airways from KL towards Beijing don't cross over Laos or Vietnam, they are mainly coastal routes that pass initially to the south of Vietnam, in the area of Con Son Island, and on up the coast towards the area of Guangzhou to connect to the airway up to Beijing. So, if they lost contact about 2hrs into the flight they would have been over water, albeit there does seem to be some confusion as to just when LOC occurred. If they went into the water, this would of course hamper any SAR response and could account for the lack of an ELT signal. Weather seems relatively benign, as it is this time of year, and of course, if it had landed anywhere, which it would have done by now, we would have heard. Also assuming no last minute contact with any ATC unit, I think it is sadly safe to assume that an immediate and non survivable incident has happened. :(

FR24 have just tweeted that they have good coverage in that area, with planes in contact all around where they 'should' have been. However ATC contact is not lost for another 1hr 20mins.

So either are something happened to the transponder at 17:20UTC which was part of a chain of events leading to loss of contact 1hr 40mins later OR this is unrelated transponder issue either onboard or with the ADS system FR use.

During the hours after the LAM Embraer flight was missing some rumours on Twitter said the aircraft landed safely.
I do not know the reputation on this source but i have my doubts. Atc should have been able to monitor the aircraft.

Chinese TV news still has the plane missing.

Still unconfirmed, anyway:

Missing plane found safe. Cockpit comms malfunctioned | FZ : Malaysia News - General, Political, National, Business, World

PETALING JAYA (March 8): The missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 has landed safely in China.

fz.com was informed by a source at the Emergency Response Team that the Beijing bound MH370 piloted by Capt Zahari Ahmad Shah had landed this morning at Nanming, Guazhou.

It had lost contact with the control tower at 2.40am, after taking off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 12.35am.

According to sources the plane’s transponder (cockpit communications system) had malfunctioned while over Vietnam airspace, causing the loss of communications.

At the two hour + mark, they would have been abeam VVTS or a bit north talking to HCM control. The route runs up to the coast past Hainan then they would crossed into China through VHHH.

If they were safely in the ground we'd know by now.

Come on people - think about it - a 777 landing at even a remote airfield - no radio messages, not one person having a working phone....

Sorry, It's Gone
 

Use FlightRadar24 and playback starting at about 17:15 UTC. MAS370 is the one sorta midway between Malaysia and the closest part of Vietnam. Its at 35,000 on heading 25 until 17:19 (01:19 local), then it goes to zero feet. Radar coverage is good in the area.

Where the plane is (generally) is not the question. What caused it to get there is the question. Sorry. That plane is not on the ground anywhere.

Also, airlines don't call next of kin if they think there's any hope.

Chinese state television reported that 160 Chinese nationals were onboard the flight.

One Russian citizen was among the passengers, ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
Also an unknown number of Australian citizen.
In total 13 nationalities were on board the flight.

It does seem extraordinary to me that Air Asia CEO Tony Fernandes referenced the "radio failure & safe landing in China" rumour on his twitter account. That seems very rash, IMHO. Beyond credulity to see how that can be true, sadly.

Exactly. Some very irresponsible comments and reporting going on in social media. It is looking very grim however.

Pressconference delayed. Will start at top of hour.
MAS denied rumours of aircraft landing in China.

There is already a Wikipedia entry for MH370. It reports registration as 9M-MRO, delivered in 2002.

Malaysia Airlines VP tells CNN no distress call or problems reported from MH370 before disappearance, plane was at 35K ft

So a catastrophic event over water, with no time or ability to communicate, is what that may imply. Ominous.