Malaysia Intensifies Search For Missing Plane …239 Persons Onboard

Malaysian authorities have said that the airlines flight carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, which went missing over the South China Sea on Saturday, may have disintegrated mid air.
The search party for the airline has widened with China sending ships to scour the water for possible wreckage while Vietnam has joined the team of international rescue operations.
“The fact that we are unable to find any debris so far appears to indicate that the aircraft is likely to have disintegrated at around 35,000 feet,” a source, who is involved in the investigations in Malaysia, told Reuters.
Asked about the possibility of an explosion, such as a bomb, the source said there was no evidence yet of foul play and that the aircraft could have broken up due to mechanical issues.
But Operations and Safety Editor for Flight International, David Learmount, said he would be very surprised if the authorities knew for sure that the plane “disintegrated” mid air, Britain’s Sunday Telegraph reported.
It said Learmount added that it was not unusual to fail to find debris immediately after a crash, pointing out that it took time to find the evidence and uncover the facts.
“We just have to accept that, for the moment, we do not know what has happened. It’s also worth remembering that it took two days for any wreckage from the Air France crash in June 2009 to be found – and two years for the full operation to be completed”,  he said.
Vietnamese authorities said a military plane had spotted at sea an object suspected to be part of the missing airliner.
But less than an hour after the statement was made, Vietnam said the objects had turned out to be nothing to do with the plane.
The crew of the DHC-6 plane saw the debris, some 60 miles south-south west of Tho Chu islands, but could not see any marks or identifiable signs.
Director General of Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation, Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, said that the debris was not from the plane.
“In the meantime, we are still verifying if the oil slick it matches the MAS Boeing 777-200 with relevant authorities,” he said.
He added that the search radius has also been expanded from 20 nautical miles to 50 nautical miles.
“At present, we have 34 aircraft and 40 ships currently combing the search and rescue areas,” he said.
As news of the disappearance filtered through to distraught friends and relatives who had been waiting for the flight to arrive in Beijing, Malaysia Airlines said it was still investigating and took no questions at a brief news conference.
Flight MH370, operating a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, last had contact with air traffic controllers 120 nautical miles off the east coast of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu, Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said in a statement read to the news conference in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia and Vietnam were conducting a joint search and rescue; he said but gave no details.
China has also sent two maritime rescue ships to the South China Sea to help in any rescue, state television said on one of its micro blogs.
“We are extremely worried,” Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing. “The news is very disturbing. We hope everyone on the plane is safe.”
The flight left Kuala Lumpur at 12.21 a.m. (11.21 a.m. ET Friday) but no trace had been found of the plane hours after it was due to land in the Chinese capital at 6.30 a.m. (5.30 p.m. ET Friday) the same day.
“We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts with flight MH370,” Jauhari said.
Saturday morning Malaysia Airlines said people from 14 nationalities were among the 227 passengers, including at least 152 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, 12 Indonesians, six Australians and three Americans. It also said a Chinese infant and an American infant were on board.