Malaysia Airlines plane crashes off Vietnam coast: state media

HANOI: A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew crashed into the sea 153 miles off the coast of Vietnam´s Tho Chu island on Saturday, according to a Vietnamese navy officer quoted by state media.

The Boeing 777-200 was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, the carrier´s CEO Ahmad Jauhari said. However, the nationality breakdown he gave added up to 228 passengers. They included 153 Chinese nationals plus one infant, 38 Malaysians, and 12 Indonesians. Seven Australians also were aboard, three French nationals, four from the United States including one infant, plus passengers from several other countries.

"At the moment there are no Vietnamese navy boats in that area so we have to ask boats from Phu Quoc island to be prepared for rescue," Admiral Ngo Van Phat told the website of Tuoi Tre news.

Tho Chu and Phu Quoc lie to the southwest of southern Vietnam.The admiral could not be reached by telephone. It was not immediately clear how he knew where the plane had crashed or whether wreckage had been spotted.

The plane last had contact with air traffic controllers 120 nautical miles off the east coast of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu, the airline said.