Vietnamese air force planes find oil slicks as search for missing jet continues

AP Photo/Lai Seng Sin

Vietnamese air force planes find oil slicks as search for missing jet continues
(Image credit: AP Photo/Lai Seng Sin)

The search continues for a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 that disappeared off radar screens less than an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur on Saturday morning.

Bound for Beijing, the plane has 227 passengers and 12 crew members aboard. Malaysia Airlines said the pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, has flown more than 18,000 hours for the airline since 1981. Neither he nor the first officer sent a distress signal, suggesting any problems occurred very quickly and perhaps did not leave time to make such a call.

Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam are coordinating on the search for the missing jet. Vietnamese air force planes discovered oil slicks that could be from a crashed jetliner's fuel tanks, but there is no confirmation they're the product of the missing plane.

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In Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, families of the plane’s passengers await news, pictured below. --Sarah Eberspacher

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