A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 239 people lost contact with air traffic control and was still missing many hours after it had been scheduled to land in Beijing. Here is a timeline:
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. Four Americans, including an infant, were aboard, a spokesman said. "Our focus now is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support," he added. Most of the passengers — 153, including one of the infants — were Chinese, the airline said Saturday. The other infant was an American, one of four on the plane. Thirty-eight people were from Malaysia, and 12 were from Indonesia.
(All times are local, Eastern Standard Time plus 13 hours.)
