No Vietnamese on crashed Malaysia Airlines plane

March 08, 2014 | 15:00

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No Vietnamese passengers were on board of the Malaysia Airlines plane that crashed off Vietnam’s coast Saturday, according to the Malaysian flag carrier.

The plane was carrying 239 people from 14 countries when it went missing early Saturday.

An official from Malaysia Airlines told The Star that there are 153 Chinese, 38 Malaysian, 12 Indonesian, seven Australian, and four American passengers on board.

Ukraine, New Zealand, and Canada each has two citizens involved in the crash while Russia, Taiwan, Italy, the Netherlands, and Austria each has one victim. All of the 12 crew members are Malaysian.

The flight captain was Malaysian national Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, who worked for the airliner since 1981 and has 18,365 hours of experience.

The first officer is Fariq Ab.Hamid, 27, who has been working at Malaysia Airlines for seven years with 2,763 hours of experience.

The flight MH370 disappeared at 1:40 am Vietnam time (1840 GMTFriday), about two hours after leaving Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing, according to AFP.

The jet crashed off in the waters between Vietnam and Malaysia, some 153 nautical miles (300km) off Tho Chu Island in Kien Giang Province, according to a Vietnamese High Command of Navy statement.

The Naval Zone 5 is ready for the search and rescue mission.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.