Malaysia Airlines flight missing: Search underway as six Australian passengers named
Updated
The six Australian passengers among 239 people on board a Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur have been named.
The airline released a passenger list that includes the names of two couples from Queensland and a couple from New South Wales.The manifest names them as Robert and Catherine Lawton, Rodney and Mary Burrows and Gu Naijun and Li Yuan.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says it has been in contact with their families, and officials are in "constant and urgent contact" with Malaysia Airlines.
No distress signals were received from the aircraft before its disappearance over the South China Sea, and DFAT says it "fears the worst" for those onboard.
Passengers on flight MH370
| Nationality | Total |
|---|---|
| China/Taiwan | 153 (1 infant) |
| Malaysia | 38 |
| Indonesia | 7 |
| Australia | 6 |
| India | 5 |
| France | 4 |
| USA | 3 (1 infant) |
| New Zealand | 2 |
| Ukraine | 2 |
| Canada | 2 |
| Russia | 1 |
| Netherlands | 1 |
| Italy | 1 (stolen passport) |
| Austria | 1 (stolen passport) |
A full-scale international search and rescue operation is underway to find the aircraft with attention zoning in on waters between southern Vietnam and Malaysia.
Malaysia Airlines says it now fears the worst and is now working with a US company that specialises in disaster recovery.
There are reports oil slicks have been found in the ocean off Vietnam in what could be the first sign of the plane's whereabouts.
Vietnam says its rescue planes have spotted two slicks, about 15 kilometres long, and a column of smoke off its coastline, but it is not clear if they are connected to the missing plane.
Flight MH370 lost contact with air traffic controllers at 2:40am local time on Saturday (5:40am AEDT), just over two hours into what should have been a six-hour journey.
There were no reports of bad weather and no signs as to why the Boeing 777-200ER would have vanished from radar screens.
Malaysia has deployed 15 air force aircraft, six navy ships and three coast guard vessels.
"The search and rescue operations will continue as long as necessary," Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak told reporters.
China and the Philippines have also sent ships to the region to help, while the United States, the Philippines and Singapore dispatched military planes.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott says Australia is looking at ways to help with the search and recovery operations.
"This is obviously a horrible, horrible business, and our thoughts and prayers are with the passengers and their families on that ill-fated aircraft, particularly to the six Australian passengers and families that are now confirmed to be on board," he said.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says it is a sad time for the families.
"This is a terrible time for those families, a terrible time of distress and grieving. I think the Australian nation's thoughts go out to families of those Australians and New Zealanders who are on this plane and indeed the families of everyone," he said.
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman says his thoughts are with the families of the four Queenslanders who were on board the flight.
"It's looking pretty grim, but let's hold out hope for some sort of miracle," he said.
"Our hearts and thoughts are with the families of all nationalities, but of course our Queensland friends."
There are reports that a 39-year-old Perth-based New Zealand man was also on the flight.
Paul Weeks was reportedly on his way to Mongolia for his first shift as a fly-in fly-out worker in Mongolia.
Stolen passports used on flight
There were no indications of sabotage nor claims of a terrorist attack.But the passenger manifest issued by the airline included the names of two Europeans - Austrian Christian Kozel and Italian Luigi Maraldi - who, according to their foreign ministries, were not in fact on the plane.
A foreign ministry spokesman in Vienna said: "Our embassy got the information that there was an Austrian on board. That was the passenger list from Malaysia Airlines. Our system came back with a note that this is a stolen passport."
Austrian police found the man safe at home.
The passport was stolen two years ago while he was travelling in Thailand, the spokesman said.
The foreign ministry in Rome said no Italian was on the plane either, despite the inclusion of Mr Maraldi's name on the list.
His mother, Renata Lucchi, told Reuters his passport was lost, presumed stolen, in Thailand in 2013.
The director general of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Authority says the possibility that stolen passports were used is being investigated.
A crash, if confirmed, would be the second fatal accident involving a Boeing 777 in less than a year.
An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-200ER crash-landed in San Francisco in July 2013, killing three passengers and injuring more than 180.
Boeing says it is monitoring the situation but has no further comment.
Paul Hayes, director of safety at Flightglobal Ascend aviation consultancy, says the flight would normally have been at a routine stage, having apparently reached its initial cruise altitude of 35,000 feet.
"Such a sudden disappearance would suggest either that something is happening so quickly that there is no opportunity to put out a mayday, in which case a deliberate act is one possibility to consider, or that the crew is busy coping with what whatever has taken place," he said.
The operations and safety editor of Flightglobal publications, David Learmount, says sabotage is a possibility but says there are similarities with the crash of an Air France Airbus in the Atlantic five years ago, which was attributed to pilot error.
"In both cases the pilots didn't make a radio call. They didn't have time to or they were too distracted by what was going on," he said.
"They were both latest generation aeroplanes. Today's aeroplanes are incredibly reliable and you do not get some sudden structural failure, it just doesn't happen."
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