Search continues for missing Malaysia Airlines plane

Anchor:

The Chinese government is preparing to send a working group to Malaysia later on this Monday to deal with the fallout from the suspected crash of a Malaysian Airlines flight off the coast of Vietnam this weekend.

CRI's Su Yi has more.

Malaysian civil aviation authorities say they are widening their search to cover vast swathes of the sea around both Malaysia and off Vietnam.

Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, Director General of Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation, held a news conference yesterday.

"The air search started from 7 a.m. this morning to 7 p.m. this evening. However the ships will continue the search even at night, even now. The outcome so far, there's no sign of the aircraft."

Rahman also says the authorities are now investigating two passengers who were traveling on stolen passports.

"On the possibility of hijack, we are not ruling out any possibility. However, it's important to state that our main concern is to focus our efforts to finding missing aircraft. So if we are able to find the aircraft, it will definitely help us to establish what exactly has happened."

Malaysia's air force says the military radar shows the missing Boeing 777 jet turned back before vanishing.

Meanwhile, it's being reported a Vietnamese naval vessel has spotted an object suspected of belonging to the plane.

However, last night's spotting hasn't been confirmed, as authorities say it was too dark to be certain the object was part of the missing plane.

Vietnamese civil aviation authorities are sending out more vessels to investigate the site later today.

The flight, flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members.

154 Chinese nationals are among those missing.

Around 50 family members of the passengers have started processing their passports in the hope they will be able to fly to Malaysia to get more information on what happened to the plane.

Malaysia Airlines says it plans to fly the first group of Chinese family members to Kuala Lumpur later on today.

The Chinese government is also sending a working group to Malaysia to help the Chinese families.

The team, including officials with the foreign ministry and ministry of public security, are also expected to try to put pressure on the Malaysian authorities to speed up search.

Two Chinese naval vessels have been dispatched to the region to help in the search for the missing jet.

The Ministry of Transport, the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the Chinese Coast guard and the Chinese navy are all on their highest level of alert.

Li Jiaxiang is the the head of the CAAC.

"According to the current situation, we haven't determined the location of the missing aircraft….Up to now, China has already established cooperation with relevant countries. We are making every effort to help with the search and rescue. The Chinese navy is also involved in the search. Our military, diplomatic and civilian forces are all involved."

40 naval vessels and 34 aircraft from nine different countries are taking part in the search for the plane, which disappeared from radar shortly after take off on early Saturday morning.