This file photo taken on Dec. 26, 2011 shows the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777-200ER that disappeared from air traffic control screens Saturday taking off fro Roisy-Charles de Gaulle Airport in France. A Malaysian Airlines flight carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew reportedly crashed in the South China Sea on Saturday, Vietnamese state media said quoting a senior naval official. The Boeing 777-200ER flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing had been missing for hours when Vietnam's Tuoi Tre news quoted Admiral Ngo Van Phat as saying he had asked boats from an island off south Vietnam to rush to the crash site. Malaysian Airlines had yet to confirm that the aircraft had crashed. It said earlier in the day that no distress signal had been given and cited early speculation that the plane may have landed in Nanming in southern China. Flight MH370 operating 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, Malaysian Airlines chief exec. Yahya said in a statement read to a news conference in Kuala Lumpur. The flight left Kuala Lumpur at 12:21 am but no trace had been found of the plane hours after it was due to land in the Chinese capital at 6:30 am the same day. Malaysia Airlines said people from 14 nationalities were among the 227 passengers including at least 152 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, 12 Indonesians, 6 Australians and 3 Americans. It also said a Chinese infant and an American infant were on board.
