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Canadian couple on missing Malaysian Airlines plane identified
Two Canadians, Muktesh Mukherjee, 42 and Xiaomo Bai, 37, have been confirmed by a Malaysia Airlines as passengers on that flight. Two passengers from Italy and Austria listed on the flight’s manifest were not on the plane — reported passports stolen in Thailand.
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KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA—Vietnamese air force planes on Saturday 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 — including two Canadians — 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 Saturday morning.
The oil slicks were spotted late Saturday off the southern tip of Vietnam and were each between 10 kilometres and 15 kilometres 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.
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Two-thirds of the missing plane’s passengers were from China, while others were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.
Two Canadians, Muktesh Mukherjee, 42, and Xiaomo Bai, 37, have been confirmed by a Malaysia Airlines manifest as passengers on that flight. Mukherjee is a Beijing-based vice-president of Chinese operations for Xcoal Energy and Resources, a Pennsylvania-based coal supplier while Bai has been studying at the Beijing Foreign Studies University.
The two are listed as married to each other on Bai’s Facebook page and have two young boys.
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An airline spokeswoman says company officials are not able to get in touch with their families but have contacted the Canadian embassy in Malaysia.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper tweeted Saturday morning regarding the couple and all other missing from the flight, saying, “Our thoughts & deepest prayers are with those affected by the disappearance of the plane in Malaysia. #cdnpoli”
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 travelling in Thailand and was not aboard the plane. It said he reported his passport stolen last August.
Vietnamese air force planes on Saturday spotted two large oil slicks in the area where a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 vanished earlier in the day, the first sign that the aircraft carrying 239 people on board had crashed. (March 8)
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. A woman wept aboard the bus while saying on a mobile phone, “They want us to go to the hotel. It cannot be good.”
Relatives and friends of passengers were escorted into a private area at the hotel, but reporters were kept away. A man in a grey hooded sweatshirt later stormed out complaining about a lack of information. The man, who said he was a Beijing resident but declined to give his name, said he was anxious because his mother was on board the flight with a group of 10 tourists.
“We have been waiting for hours and there is still no verification,” he said.
The plane was last detected on radar at 1:30 a.m. (1730 GMT Friday) 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,” Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese army, said in a statement.
The South China Sea is a tense region with competing territorial claims that have led to several low-level conflicts, particularly between China and the Philippines. That antipathy briefly faded Saturday as China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia all sent ships and planes to the region.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said that Malaysia had dispatched 15 planes and nine ships to the area, and that the U.S. navy was sending some planes as well. Singapore, China and Vietnam also were 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, vital to any investigation, 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 Lt. Gen. Roy Deveraturda, commander of the Philippine military’s Western Command.
After the oil slick was spotted, the air search was suspended for the night and was to resume Sunday 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 152 passengers from China, 38 from Malaysia, seven from Indonesia, six from Australia, five from India, three from the U.S., two from Canada and others from Indonesia, France, New Zealand, Ukraine, Russia, Taiwan 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. Focus of the airline is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support,” said Yahya, the airline CEO. “Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members.”
Fuad Sharuji, Malaysia Airlines’ vice-president of operations control, told CNN that the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,670 metres when it disappeared and that the pilots had reported no problem with the aircraft.
Malaysia Airlines has a good safety record, as does the 777, which had not had a fatal crash in its 19-year history until an Asiana Airlines plane crashed in San Francisco in July 2013, killing three passengers, all teenagers from China.
Airliner “black boxes” — the 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 U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. If the boxes are trapped inside the wreckage, the sound may not travel as far, he said. If the boxes are at the bottom of an underwater trench, that also hinders how far the sound can travel. The signals also weaken over time.
Air France Flight 447, with 228 people on board, disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009. Some wreckage and bodies were recovered over the next two weeks, but it took nearly two years for the main wreckage of the Airbus 330 and its black boxes to be located and recovered.
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 about 2,800 hours of experience and has flown for the airline since 2007.
The tip of the wing of the same Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777-200 broke off Aug. 9, 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.
Malaysia Airlines’ last fatal incident was in 1995, when one its planes crashed near the Malaysian city of Tawau, killing 34 people. The deadliest crash in its history occurred in 1977, when a domestic Malaysian flight crashed after being hijacked, killing 100 people.
In August 2005, a Malaysian Airlines 777 flying from Perth, Australia, to Kuala Lumpur suddenly shot up 900 metres (3,000 feet) before the pilot disengaged the autopilot and landed safely. The plane’s software had incorrectly measured speed and acceleration, and the software was quickly updated on planes around the world.
Malaysia Airlines has 15 Boeing 777-200s in its fleet of about 100 planes. The state-owned carrier last month reported its fourth straight quarterly loss and warned of tougher times.
With files from Jodee Brown and Ira Lamcja
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MARK RALSTON / AFP/GETTY IMAGES
A young woman cries at the Beijing Airport after receiving news of the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 plane.
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KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA—A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 carrying 239 people — including two Canadians — lost contact with air traffic control early Saturday morning on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
On Saturday morning, Vietnamese media reported authorities had detected signals from the missing plane in the South China Sea, about 225 kilometres off the country’s southwestern coast. However, this could not be confirmed.
Xinhua, the state news agency in China, said regular radio communications with the aircraft had been lost two hours into the flight. The aircraft’s radar signal also vanished.
Earlier there were rumours the plane had landed safely at airports in the Chinese hinterland. But Fuad Sharuji, Malaysian Airlines’ vice-president of operations control, told CNN that these were untrue and the airline had no idea where the plane was.
Sharuji said the plane had been flying at an altitude of 10,700 metres (35,000 feet) and the pilots had reported no problems.
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Flight MH370, with 227 passengers and 12 crew aboard, had been scheduled to land in the Chinese capital at 6:30 a.m. local time but did not arrive. Xinhua said the plane never did enter Chinese airspace.
The 777-200 departed from Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 a.m. Saturday and lost contact with air traffic controllers in Subang, a suburb of the Malaysian capital, about two hours later at 1:20 a.m.
Xinhua said the plane’s last known contact was with Vietnamese air traffic control, and the pilots had not been in touch with Chinese air traffic control.
A statement by the airline gave a brief description of the pilot: “The flight was piloted by Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a Malaysian aged 53. He has a total flying hours of 18,365 hours. He joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981.”
The statement also listed the nationalities of the passengers: China 152 (plus one infant), Malaysia 38, Indonesia 12, Australia seven, France three, U.S., three (plus one infant), New Zealand two, Ukraine two, Canada two, Russia one, Italy one, Taiwan one, Netherlands one and Austria one.
At Beijing’s airport, Zhai Le was waiting for two of her friends, a couple, who were on their way back to the Chinese capital on the flight. She said she was very concerned because she hadn’t been able to reach them.
Airport authorities posted a written notice asking relatives and friends of passengers to gather at a hotel about 30 minutes drive away to wait for further information. They provided a shuttle bus service.
Another woman wept aboard the shuttle bus while talking by cellphone: “They want us to go to the hotel. It cannot be good!”
A Malaysian man who gave only his surname, Zhang, said he had been waiting at the airport for two Malaysian friends on the flight but the airport authorities had told him only that the flight had been delayed: he had learned of the aircraft’s disappearance from reading about it on the web.
In Kuala Lumpur, the airline said it was working with authorities to activate their search and rescue teams to locate the missing aircraft.
The route would have taken the plane from Malaysia across the Gulf of Thailand to Vietnam and then north to China.
The “focus of the airline is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support,” the airline said in a statement.
“Our team is currently calling the next of kin of passengers and crew. Focus of the airline is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support,” Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said in a statement.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members,” he added.
Malaysia Airlines has 15 Boeing 777-200 jets in its fleet of about 100 planes. Last month, the state-owned carrier reported its fourth straight quarterly loss.
In October, two people were killed when a domestic flight operated by MASwings, a subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines, from Kota Kinabalu in the state of Sabah to Kudat in the nearby state of Sarawak crashed
But there had been only two previous crashes of Boeing 777s in its 20-year history. Last July 6, an Asiana plane came in too slow and at too low an altitude and crash-landed at San Francisco International Airport. Three people were killed and several others suffered serious permanent injuries. So far it does not appear that there was a mechanical problem with that aircraft.
In January 2008, a British Airways 777 came in short of the runway at Heathrow in London. Both engines failed. The problem was traced to icing in the fuel system. Nobody was killed.
The missing:
Here’s the third news release issued Friday night by Malaysia Airlines, which identified the nationalities of the people aboard flight MH370:
Ladies and Gentlemen, we are deeply saddened this morning with the news on MH370.
Malaysia Airlines confirms that flight MH370 had lost contact with Subang Air Traffic Control at 2.40am, today. There has been speculation that the aircraft has landed at Nanming. We are working to verify the authenticity of the report and others.
Flight MH370 was operated on a Boeing 777-200 aircraft. It departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41 am earlier this morning bound for Beijing. The aircraft was scheduled to land at Beijing International Airport at 6.30am local Beijing time.
The flight was carrying a total number of 239 passengers and crew – comprising 227 passengers (including 2 infants), 12 crew members. The passengers were of 14 different nationalities - citizens from:-
1. China – 152 plus 1 infant
2. Malaysia - 38
3. Indonesia - 12
4. Australia - 6
5. France - 3
6. United States of America – 3 plus 1 infant
7. New Zealand - 2
8. Ukraine - 2
9. Canada - 2
10. Russia - 1
11. Italy - 1
12. Taiwan - 1
13. Netherlands - 1
14. Austria - 1
This flight was a code share with China Southern Airlines.
We are working with authorities who have activated their Search and Rescue team to locate the aircraft.
Our team is currently calling the next-of-kin of passengers and crew.
The flight was piloted by Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a Malaysian aged 53. He has a total flying hours of 18,365hours. He joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981. First officer, Fariq Ab.Hamid, a Malaysian, is aged 27. He has a total flying hours of 2,763 hours. He joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007.
Our focus now is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support. Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members.
The airline will provide regular updates on the situation. The public may contact +603 7884 1234 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 
+603 7884 1234 FREE end_of_the_skype_highlighting. For media queries, kindly contact +603 8777 5698/ +603 8787 1276 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +603 8787 1276 FREE end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
+603 7884 1234 FREE end_of_the_skype_highlighting. For media queries, kindly contact +603 8777 5698/ +603 8787 1276 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +603 8787 1276 FREE end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
Next-of-kin may head to the Support Facility Building at KLIA’s South Support Zone. For directions, call 03 8787 1269.
With files from Star wire services
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