Loved ones pray for the best, brace for the worst as countries search for missing jetliner, presumed to have crashed

Relatives and friends of the passengers on Flight MH370 anxiously await news at Beijing Capital International Airport on Saturday. [Zhu Xingxin / China Daily]

Several countries' joint efforts to locate the missing Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 239 people, including 154 Chinese, which was heading to Beijing, intensified late Saturday as the plane is presumed to have crashed into the ocean bordering Vietnam and Malaysia.

Malaysia Airlines released its first statement on its website about five hours after Flight MH370 lost contact with traffic control at 2:40 am. China and Malaysia are in the same time zone. The Boeing 777-200 aircraft on a code share with China Southern Airlines departed from Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 am on Saturday for Beijing and was scheduled to land at Beijing Capital International Airport at 6:30 am.

No distress signal, indications of bad weather or technical problems were reported before the aircraft disappeared at the altitude of 10,668 meters. The flight was piloted by captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a 53-year-old Malaysian with 18,365 hours of flying time. He joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981. First officer Fariq Ab Hamid, a Malaysian, is age 27 and has 2,763 hours of flying time. He joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007.

An international search and rescue mission was mobilized in the morning, Malaysia Airlines said in a statement released at 7:20 pm. It said the sea mission will continue while the air mission will recommence at daylight.

Two passengers from Austria and Italy on the boarding list of Malaysia Airlines confirmed they were not on board and said they lost their passports earlier.

Vietnamese air force planes have spotted two large oil slicks authorities suspect are from the missing aircraft.

A Vietnamese government statement said the slicks were spotted off the southern tip of Vietnam. They were each between 10 and 15 kilometers long, the Associated Press reported on Saturday evening.

President Xi Jinping ordered the Foreign Ministry as well as Chinese embassies and consulates to keep contact with departments of relevant countries and pay close attention to rescue work.

All-out efforts must be made for any emergency treatment necessary in the aftermath of the incident, Xi said in his instruction.

Premier Li Keqiang made an urgent call to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Saturday afternoon, asking Malaysia and related countries to work together to locate the aircraft as soon as possible and do everything possible to launch rescue missions.

Najib said China and Vietnam had deployed vessels to scour the South China Sea while Singapore has offered the services of its air force aircraft to Malaysia. The United States' navy's aircraft have also offered to take part in the operations, which are mostly concentrated in waters near Vietnam.

The Royal Malaysian Air Force has dispatched 15 aircraft while the navy had sent out six vessels to search Malaysian waters, he said.

"There are too many theories, but we do not want to indulge in speculation," Najib said when asked if hijacking and terrorism could be reasons for the aircraft's disappearance.

"Our main focus now should be on the search-and-rescue efforts."

China's Ministry of Transportation dispatched two rescue vessels at 3:52 pm to waters where the missing plane might have been.

The vessels were to join the search after the area where the plane most likely was last is identified. Hainan province's maritime bureau also issued two alerts to boats in the suspected waters and required them to report anything suspicious.

Twenty Chinese rescue vessels and two aircraft are on standby to join the search.

Malaysia Airlines held a news conference in Beijing on Saturday afternoon and released the manifest of all 227 passengers and 12 crewmembers on board. The passengers are from 13 countries and include two infants.

People began to identify the names on the list after it was published and prepare for the worst.

The list includes 30-year-old Liang Xuyang and 29-year-old Tian Junwei. Both are employees of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications company.

"Liang is the father of a 4-month-old baby," said Zhang Shanwei, an employee of Huawei's branch in Egypt, who claimed to know Liang.

"He has been working oversees most of the time since coming to Huawei. This time, he was on a business trip to Malaysia."

A Sina Weibo micro blog user claiming to be Tian's colleague and classmate posted: "I talked with Tian online in January. He told me he wanted to return to China and find a girlfriend. The only thing I can do now is to pray for his safety."

Wang Huageng, 30, who claimed to be a friend of 60-year-old Song Chunling, who was aboard the plane after transferring via Kuala Lumpur on a flight from Nepal, said: "It'd be an ordinary incident if my friend wasn't aboard. I feel anxiety and grief. We should cherish life and make every day count.

"Song is a kind and elegant woman, and enjoys hobbies like traveling and ballet dancing. She's very enthusiastic about life. I've learned a lot from her as a young man."

He said nine of Song's travel group members are also on the list.

Ctrip.com, China's largest online travel agency, said it had issued tickets to 19 people, including a child, for Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Some passengers had bought insurance, but the agency has not publicized the number.

Qunar.com, another leading online travel agency, confirmed four passengers used the site to book tickets for the flight. They include a 61-year-old man surnamed Dou, a 61-year-old woman surnamed Zhang and a 27-year-old woman surnamed Jiang. All three left Beijing for Kuala Lumpur half a month ago. A 30-year-old man also got a ticket from Qunar.

The last fatal incident involving a Malaysia Airlines aircraft took place on September 15, 1995, when 34 people died after a Fokker 50 crashed on approach to Tawau, a town in the Eastern Malaysian state of Sabah.

Zhang Yan, Yang Yao, Hou Liqiang, Xu Wei, Hu Yongqi, Peng Yining, He Na and Jing Haixing in Beijing and Shi Jing in Shanghai contributed to this story.

The Star in Malaysia and Asia News Network also contributed to this story.

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(China Daily 03/09/2014 page1)