Malaysia Airlines: no evidence found of wreckage of missing plane

Multinational search and rescue teams have not found evidence of any wreckage of the missing Malaysian Airlines aircraft so far, said the Malaysia Airlines on Saturday evening.

"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, " said the carrier in a latest statement on its website.

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

The carrier confirmed the flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200, was carrying 227 passengers including two infants and 12 crew members when it lost contact with Subang Air Traffic Control around 02:40 a.m. local time Saturday morning.

The plane left Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 00:41 a.m. Saturday and was due to land in Beijing at 06:30 a.m.

Malaysia's acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said at a press conference earlier on Saturday afternoon that Malaysia has sent a C130 aircraft, 75 helicopters and several naval ships to search for the plane, which was flying above the South China Sea at the time of last contact.

Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines also have sent ships and aircraft to join the search and rescue work.

An official of the Vietnam's State Search and Rescue Commission has reportedly said that a filmy substance that appeared to be oil was found floating on the surface of water over a stretch of about 20 km.

According to Malaysia Airlines, the missing plane is 11 years and 10 months old, and the pilot, 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah, joined the state-owned airline in 1981 and has logged 18,365 hours of total flight time.