Malaysian plane crashes off Vietnam coast: Five Indians among 239 on board

March 8, 2014

Plane_crashes
Malaysia_Airlines_plane_crash

Beijing/Kuala Lumpur, Mar 8: A Beijing-bound Malaysian Airlines plane that went missing with 239 people on board, including five Indians, today crashed into waters off Vietnam's southern Phu Quoc Island, Vietnamese media reported.

The Boeing 777-200 Flight MH370 with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board crashed 250 km off coast of Tho Chu island, Vietnamese newspaper Tuoi Tre (Youth) quoted Rear Admiral Ngo Van Phat, political commissar of the Fifth Naval Region of Vietnam, as saying.

A fresh passengers' list issued by the airline said five Indians were among the 239 passengers on board the aircraft, correcting its previous account in which Indians were not mentioned.

"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," the admiral said.

From the report it was not clear how the admiral knew about the crash or whether the wreckage of the ill-fated plane has been located.

There is no confirmation about the report from the Malaysian authorities.

Chinese media is reporting the plane may have crashed into the South China Sea, state-run Xinhua news agency said.

The plane took off at 12:41 a.m. (local time) and lost contact with Subang Air Traffic Control near Kuala Lumpur almost two hours later at 2:40 a.m, the airlines said.

The fresh list of passengers issued by the airline mentions people of 14 nationalities including Indians.

The plane disappeared in the night somewhere over South China Sea while enroute to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.

"Focus of the airline is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support," the Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya earlier said.

He said the pilot of the missing aircraft, identified as Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, had 18365 hours of experience and joined the airlines in 1981.

Those on board include 5 Indians, 152 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, 7 Indonesians, 6 Australians, 3 French, 4 including an infant from the US, 2 New Zealanders, 2 Ukrainians, 2 Canadians, 1 each from Russia, Italy, Taiwan, Netherlands and Austria.

Malaysia Airlines is currently working with the authorities who have activated their Search and Rescue team to locate the aircraft, Jauhari said.

"Our team is currently calling the next-of-kin of passengers and crew," he added.

Confusion and chaos prevailed in Beijing where the planed was due to land at 6.30 AM.

Relatives of the 152 Chinese passengers rushed to the airport and later the Malaysian Airline office to find about the fate of their near dear ones.

A passenger manifest originating from China which has been circulating online and also published by Star online mentions the Indians along with their passport numbers.

The names include Chetna Kolekar, Swanand Kolekar, Suresh Kolekar, Chandrika Sharma and Prahlad Shirsatha. One Indian-origin Canadian Muktesh Mukherjee was also on board.

Malaysian authorities continued to state that a massive search and rescue operation was on and no wreckage had been sited so far.

The plane was cruising at 36,000 feet when it is reported to have crashed.

Sources told the New Straits Times that assets from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, Royal Malaysian Navy and Royal Malaysian Air Force had been deployed to the area for a search and rescue mission this morning.

"It was presumed that the flight might be somewhere 100 nautical miles east of Kota Baru and 120 nautical miles southern of Vietnam's tip," an unnamed source said.

Meanwhile, two Chinese maritime rescue ships have left to the South China Sea to help in rescue work.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has instructed all the relevant authorities to take immediate measure in identifying the missing aircraft.

Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said he has instructed all relevant agencies including TUDM (Royal Malaysian Air Force) to work together (in) locating the plane.

The aircraft came into service in 2002. Malaysia has 15 Boeing 777-200 series.

Earlier, Vice President operations control Fuad sharuji said the airlines had got in touch with five of its flights in air to see if they had heard from the missing plane but they had got no response.

Several ATC of nearby countries had also been contacted by the airline, Fuad said.

The aircraft had a Code share with China southern airline. The plane had entered Vietnamese airspace when it lost control.

Chinese ships and aircraft are on standby to locate and rescue the missing Malaysian plane carrying more than 150 Chinese passengers to Beijing.

Chinese Minister of Transport Yang Chuantang announced the launch of the highest-degree emergency response mechanism.

The ministry is closely observing the situation and actively coordinating with domestic as well as maritime rescue authorities and civil aviation administrations in Malaysia and Vietnam, Xinhua quoted him as saying.

Eight ships belonging to the Nanhai Rescue Bureau and the Hainan Maritime Safety Administration are waiting for orders. An aircraft fleet is also ready to take off, he said.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 28,2024

flag.jpg

Students in Paris blocked access to a campus building at a French university on Friday, as pro-Palestine demonstrations reach Europe.

The students occupied the central campus building of the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po, and dozens of others blocked its entrance, echoing protest action at American universities.

Students inspired by Gaza solidarity encampments at campuses in the United States blocked access to a campus building at the prestigious French university on Friday.

They blocked the entrance with trash cans, wooden platforms and other items.

The occupation of the Paris university campus came after police broke up a separate protest at the university’s amphitheater outside one of its Paris campuses.

Scores of student protesters gathered at the building’s windows, chanting slogans and holding placards reading “We are all Palestinians,” in defiance of administrators who students say called the police on their peers two days earlier.

Pro-Palestinian student protesters had occupied the amphitheater outside one of the university’s Paris campuses on Wednesday evening.

The US-style student protests, which began over the months-long Israeli regime’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, kicked off in the United States and have now spread to European capitals as well as Australia.

In the German capital Berlin, several people were arrested as police violently cleared a camp of Gaza war protesters at the German parliament.

Pro-Palestinian activists are demanding a permanent ceasefire, an end to the Israeli atrocities, and an arms embargo of the Tel Aviv regime.

The Israeli regime launched the war on Gaza on October 7 last year. The genocidal war has killed more than 34,356 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 28,2024

USprotest.jpg

Campuses of several US Universities have been witnessing massive protests with the students seeking a ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas. Police have arrested over 550 protesters and some universities are witnessing violent crackdown of protests by the ruthless cops. 

Law enforcement officials at the behest of college administrators have deployed tasers and tear gas against students protesters at Atlanta's Emory University, even though the protests have been largely peaceful, say activists and media personnel present at the spot.

Emil' Keme, professor of English and Indigenous studies, at the University said that the scene reminded him of the civil war in Guatemala as a teenager.

"Police immediately began to force people to move. I felt like I was in a war zone, with all the police and their weapons, the rubber bullets. We were pushed away," Mr Keme told the Guardian describing what happened as soon as cops entered the Emory campus.

“Police took the student next to me, pushed an older lady nearby and then pushed me.”

Student protesters say they are expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where the confirmed death toll has topped 34,305, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. They want universities to cut their investments in everything tied to Israel and weapons that fuel the war in Gaza. That means funds run by BlackRock, Google as well as Amazon's cloud service, Lockheed Martin and even Airbnb.

Video circulated widely on social media shows two women who identified themselves as professors being detained, with one of them slammed to the ground by one officer as a second officer then pushes her chest and face onto a concrete sidewalk.

Atlanta police and Georgia troopers are leading a joint operation within the campus to dismantle the tents and camps the activists have set up at the school's quadrangle. Within minutes of the authorities entering the campus, 28 people, 20 of whom were "Emory community members", had been arrested, the institute said in a statement.

The school president said that the videos of police clashing with the students "are shocking" and that he is "horrified horrified that members of our community had to experience and witness such interactions."

The university's response was likely the quickest show of police force in response to a divestment protest among the dozens nationwide that have occurred in recent weeks. It was also probably the only one where pepper balls, stun guns and rubber bullets were used.

USprotest3.jpg

USprotest2.jpg

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 26,2024

indiangirl.jpg

An Indian-origin woman studying at the prestigious Princeton University in the US is among two students arrested over pro-Palestine protests on the campus, reports student and alumni newspapers.

Tamil Nadu-born Achinthya Sivalingan and Hassan Sayed were arrested after the protesters set up tents for an encampment in a university courtyard early Thursday morning, according to the Princeton Alumni Weekly (PAW).

The two graduate students were arrested on charge of trespassing and have been "immediately barred from the campus", said Jennifer Morrill, a university spokesperson, adding that setting up tents on the campus violated university policy.

However, they have not been evicted and will be allowed into their housing, another varsity spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss confirmed to the Daily Princetonian.

Ms Sivalingam is a student of Masters in Public Affairs in International Development at Princeton while Mr Sayed is a PhD candidate there.

In a statement, Morill said the students were given "repeated warnings from the Department of Public Safety to cease the activity and leave the area" and they now face disciplinary action. After their arrest, the other protesters "voluntarily" packed away their camping gear, she added.

Hotchkiss said the university did not evict anyone on Thursday and that the university allows students barred from campus to stay in their university-owned housing.

The undergraduate students were warned against occupation and encampment exercises in an email Wednesday, according to the Daily Princetonian.

Princeton students, faculty and community members, and even outsiders were part of the demonstration, the PAW cited organizers of the protest as saying. Large, white tents were set up nearby for upcoming reunions and other events.

A student who chose to be identified only as Urvi termed the arrests as "violent", which included the students being zip-tied around their wrists. The university, however, contested this and said the officers did not use any force and the arrests were made without any resistance.

Pro-Palestine protests have rocked the top US universities as thousands of students have hit their campuses to demonstrate against the Gaza deaths due to Israel’s inhuman military operation. 

The protests, which began at Columbia University in New York, have to colleges across the country and saw hundreds of students confronting cops and raising pro-Palestine slogans. The protesters have been calling on their universities to divest from companies that profit from the Gaza war and advocate an immediate ceasefire.

Who is Achinthya Sivalingan?

1. Achinthya Sivalingan was born in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu and was raised in Columbus, Ohio.

2. She is pursuing a Master of Public Affairs (MPA) degree in International Development at Princeton University. Before that, Ms Sivalingan studied world politics and economics at Ohio State University and was also an Intern at Harvard Law School. 

3. Ms Sivalingan has significant experience in policy issues, having worked with civil society organisations, the legal system, politics, movement building, and private philanthropy. Her previous roles include supporting policy and advocacy work for climate adaptation, agricultural development, and nutrition portfolios at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

4. Ms Sivalingan has worked on a congressional campaign in Ohio's third district and also contributed to land rights and policy initiatives in India at the Centre for Policy Research. 

5. She has been banned from Princeton over pro-Palestine protests and is now facing disciplinary action. 

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.