Malaysia Airlines 777 Flight MH370 Goes Missing 2 Hours After Take-off, 227 Aboard Including 3 Americans (VIDEO) (Update: Oil Slicks Spotted)(Update: Terrorism Not Ruled Out) (Update: Two Stolen Passports)

An entire Malaysia Airlines 777 goes missing …

ABC News is reporting that a Malaysia Airlines 777, Flight MH370 departed from Kuala Lumpur at 12:55 a.m., and was scheduled to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m has gone missing two hours after take-off. Flight MH370 simply vanished from the radar.  There are a total of 239 aboard, that includes 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board the Boeing 777-200 aircraft. including three Americans.

A Malaysia Airlines flight with 227 passengers on board – including two adult Americans and an infant – has gone missing and a search and rescue team has been deployed to locate the aircraft, a spokeswoman has confirmed to ABC News.

Flight MH370 departed Kuala Lumpur at 12:55 a.m., and was scheduled to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m., the airline said. It went missing two hours into the flight and disappeared off the radar at 065515 North (longitude) and 1033443 East (latitude).

The airline said there are 227 passengers, including two infants, and 12 crew members on board the Boeing 777-200 aircraft.

Malaysia Airlines MH370 Flight Incident :

• Media Statement – MH370 Incident released at 7.24am: Sepang, 8 March 2014: Malaysia Airlines confirms that flight MH370 has lost contact with Subang Air Traffic Control at 2.40am, today (8 March 2014). Flight MH370, operated on the B777-200 aircraft, departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41am on 8 March 2014. MH370 was expected to land in Beijing at 6.30am the same day. The flight was carrying a total number of 227 passengers (including 2 infants), 12 crew members.

• 2nd Media Statement: We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts with flight MH370 which departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41 am earlier this morning bound for Beijing. The aircraft was scheduled to land at Beijing International Airport at 6.30am local Beijing time. Subang Air Traffic Control reported that it lost contact at 2.40am (local Malaysia time) today.

• 5th Media Statement: Sepang, 8 March 2014:  The families of all passengers on board MH370 are being informed. The flight was carrying a total number of 239 passengers and crew – comprising 227 passengers (including 2 infants) and 12 crew members.

An international search and rescue mission was mobilized this morning. At this stage, our search and rescue teams from Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam have failed to find evidence of any wreckage.

The sea mission will continue while the air mission will recommence at daylight.

For the passenger manifest of MH370, click here.

The passengers are of 14 different nationalities. All crew on-board are Malaysians.

 The plane last had contact with air traffic controllers two hours after it took off 120 nautical miles off the east coast of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu, the airline said on Saturday

UPDATE I: Planes spot oil slicks in search for missing flight.

Vietnamese air force planes on Saturday spotted two large oil slicks close to where a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 went missing earlier in the day, the first sign that the aircraft carrying 239 people had crashed.

The oil slicks were spotted late Saturday off the southern tip of Vietnam and were each between 6 miles and 9 miles long, the Vietnamese government said in a statement. There was no confirmation that the slicks were related to the missing plane, but the statement said they were consistent with the kinds that would be produced by the two fuel tanks of a crashed jetliner.

UPDATE II: Terrorism not ruled out in disappearance of Malaysia Airlines jet.

Malaysian officials investigating the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines plane Saturday said they were not ruling out terrorism — or any other causes — as reports emerged that two Europeans listed on the passenger manifest were not aboard and may have had their passports stolen.

Malaysia’s director general of civil aviation told a news conference Saturday night that authorities had reviewed closed-circuit TV footage of passengers and their luggage and hadn’t seen anything of concern. But Prime Minister Najib Razak cautioned that it was “too early” to come to any conclusions, and other officials said nothing was being ruled out of consideration at this point.

CNN VIDEO – Odd to lose contact while cruising

UPDATE III: Full manifest published online by the Malaysia airline listed the American passengers aboard Flight MH370 as 51 year old Philip Wood, 4 year old Nicole Meng, and 2 year old Yan Zhang.

CNN VIDEO – Plane loses contact with airline, Tim Tilman, Aviation Expert … This Sounds Bad.

UPDATE IV: Austrian Ministry: Passenger on Malaysia Flight Used Stolen Austria Passport

A passenger on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight was traveling with a stolen Austrian passport, Austria’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

A 30-year Austrian whose name was on the passenger list for the flight wasn’t on board. His passport was stolen in Thailand in 2012, a ministry spokesman said, confirming a report in German newspaper Die Welt.

The airline contacted the Austrian embassy in Kuala Lumpur about the one Austrian listed as a passenger, but an embassy check showed the man’s passport as stolen. The man is currently in Austria.

From NBC News, Stolen Passports Prompt Terror Concerns in Missing Jet, Officials Say

A terrorism analysts stated, “It is unusual for one person to board a plane with a stolen passport and very rare for two to do it.”

U.S. officials told NBC News on Saturday they are investigating terrorism concerns after two people listed as passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines jet turned out not to be on the plane and had reported their passports stolen.

The officials said that they had found no clear link to terrorism, and that there are other criminal reasons, for example drug smuggling, that stolen passports might be used to board a plane.

But the revelations, hours after the jet disappeared over the South China Sea without sending a distress signal, significantly changed how U.S. officials looked at the disaster. U.S. officials said they were checking into passenger manifests and going back through intelligence.

“We are aware of the reporting on the two stolen passports,” one senior official said. “We have not determined a nexus to terrorism yet, although it’s still very early, and that’s by no means definitive.”

UPDATE V: Time line if events for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370:

• 12:41 a.m. – The Boeing 777-200, carrying 227 passengers from 14 countries along with 12 crew members, takes off from Kuala Lumpur.
• 2:40 a.m. – Air traffic control in Subang, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, loses contact with the plane about two hours after takeoff. According to the Vietnamese military officials, the plane was just about to enter Vietnam’s airspace when its communications systems went silent.
• 6:30 a.m. Saturday – The flight is scheduled to land in Beijing.
• 7:24 a.m. – Malaysia Airlines announces it had lost contact five hours earlier with the flight.
• 11:14 a.m. — Malaysia Airlines holds a news conference confirming the loss of contact with its aircraft.

UPDATE VI: Passenger list adds to questions – Two men whose names appear on the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 manifest had reported their passports stolen.

CNN:

Uncertainly over the fate of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was further compounded Saturday by reports that two men whose names matched those on the passenger manifest had reported their passports stolen.

Malaysian authorities apparently did not check the stolen documents on an international law enforcement agency database, CNN has learned.

After the airline released a manifest of the 239 people on the plane, Austria denied that one of its citizens was on the flight as the list had stated. The Austrian citizen was safe and sound, and his passport had been stolen two years ago, Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Weiss said.

Similarly, Italy’s foreign ministry confirmed that no Italians were on the flight, even though an Italian was listed on the manifest. Malaysian officials said they were aware of reports that the Italian’s passport was also stolen but had not confirmed it.

UPDATE VII: Malaysia says debris spotted off Vietnam not from missing plane.

The debris spotted by a Singapore search team about 100km south-southwest of Vietnam’s Tho Chu island was not that of the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370, said Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman.

Azharuddin however, said that though oil spills were found but there has been no confirmation yet.

“There was oil spill found but we are in the verification process now as to whether the oil spill came from the missing aircraft. However, we have not received a report yet,” he said during the press conference in Sepang on Sunday.