Lai Seng Sin/AP
Distraught family members crowd Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia after jetliner with 239 people on board vanished from air traffic control screens over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam.
A pair of massive South China Sea oil slicks could mark the spot where a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner crashed just one hour after takeoff Saturday, authorities said.
Vietnamese air force jets discovered the miles-long slicks in their hunt for Flight MH370 and the 239 people aboard the Boeing 777 that simply dropped off radar screens around 1:30 a.m.
The U.S. Navy dispatched a warship and a surveillance plane to join the multinational search team that failed to turn up any wreckage across 17 fruitless hours before nightfall in Southeast Asia.
REUTERS/Trung Hieu/Thanh Nien Newspaper
View of oil spills seen from Vietnamese air force plane on Saturday in the search area for a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members.
The jetliner vanished without sending a distress signal, raising the specter of a quick and catastrophic mid-air incident.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, asked if terrorism was in play, said it was too early to say.
“We are looking at all possibilities,” said Razak.
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MOHD RASFAN/AFP/Getty Images
Sarah Nor, 55, the mother of 34-year-old Norliakmar Hamid, a passenger on missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, is seen here at her home in Kuala Lumpur Saturday. She has received no word on the fate of those onboard.
Confirmation that two passengers were traveling from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with stolen passports raised a red flag among the global intelligence community.
“This gets our antenna up, for sure,” said Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.), a member of the Homeland Security Committee. “Once you hear that — stolen passports, a plane disappearing from the radar — you have to go to the full-court press.”
A federal law enforcement source said the U.S. was “still monitoring the situation.”
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flightradar24.com/AP
This screengrab from flightradar24.com shows the last reported position of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared over the South China Sea on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
King said intelligence agencies around the world would no doubt check for “communications among terrorists or any type of chatter” about the flight.
The Congressional veteran, along with another federal source, cautioned it was still too early in the investigation to draw any conclusions.
Malaysia Airlines said 14 nationalities were among the 227 passengers – including at least three Americans. There were conflicting reports about whether an infant was among those three.
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AFP PHOTO / PHILIPPINE MILITARY WESTERN COMMAND
Members of the Philippine Military Western Command map out search-and-rescue operations for missing Malaysia Airlines flight. Several Asian countries scrambled air and water teams to comb the South China Sea off southern Vietnam on Saturday.
Officials in Italy and Austria confirmed Saturday that the names of two passengers on the fight manifest matched passports reported stolen in Thailand.
The Italian passport was swiped 18 months ago, while the Austrian travel document disappeared two years ago, officials said.
The Italian is now living in Thailand, while the Austrian was located in his homeland.
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Laurent Errera/AP
This 2011 photo shows the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 that disappeared from air traffic control screens Saturday. The image was taken at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport in France.
The plane “lost all contact and radar signal one minute before it entered Vietnam’s air traffic control,” said a statement from Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan of the Vietnamese Army.
Malaysia sent 15 planes and nine ships to the area, while Vietnam sent two navy boats, two jets and a helicopter to comb the region.
Jet pilots reported seeing the two oil slicks in the South China Sea, a possible sign of leaking fuel from the passenger vessel.
JASON LEE/Reuters
A woman, whose husband was a passenger of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, attempts to leave a Beijing hotel after complaining that the airline was withholding information.
One of the slicks was about nine miles long, and the other about six miles long, officials said. Each was consistent with the residue of a crash by a jetliner with two fuel tanks, authorities confirmed.
“We are doing everything in our power to locate the plane,” said said Malaysia Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
“We are doing everything we can to ensure every possible angle has been addressed.”
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AP
Surrounding countries sent military jets and ships Saturday to help in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight. A Filipino air force officer is seen here returning from a sweep of the South China Sea.
Officials said 153 of the travelers were from Taiwan and China. Passengers also included 38 Malaysians, seven people from Indonesia, six from Australia, four from France and two Canadians.
At Beijing’s airport, pandemonium reigned as angry and upset relatives accused the airline of keeping them in the dark and state media accused Malaysia Airlines of responding poorly to the aircraft’s disappearance.
“There’s no one from the company here, we can’t find a single person,” said one middle-aged man at the hotel where grieving relatives were brought by airline officials. “They’ve just shut us in this room and told us to wait.”
Another family member complained, “They’re treating us worse than dogs.”
Some 20 to 30 families were kept in a room at the airport under guard by security officials who prevented reporters from talking to relatives.
If the flight has indeed crashed, it would be the second deadly accident involving a Boeing 777 in less than a year. An Asiana Airlines jet slammed to the ground in San Francisco in July, killing three people and injuring more than 180.
With News Wire Services
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