5 Indians among passengers on Malaysia Airlines flight that plunged into South China Sea

TNN

CHENNAI, Mar 8, 2014 : At least five Indians, including one woman from Chennai, were among the 227 passengers on board the Malaysia Airlines flight that reportedly plunged into the South China Sea on Saturday.

According to an official at the Beijing International airport, the passengers list shows that at least five Indian citizens boarded the plane from Kuala Lumpur. They are Chandrika Sharma, Prahlad Shirsat, Chetana Vinod Kolekar, Vinod Suresh Kolekar and Swanand Vinod Kolekar

Officials at India’s Bureau of Immigration have confirmed the report that Indian passengers were on board the flight. The officials said they are collecting details from Beijing and Kuala Lumpur airports.

 

They said Chandrika Sharma, executive secretary of the International Collective in Support of Fish workers (ICSF) who hails from Chennai, was among the passengers. An expert on issues relating to the rights of small scale fisheries initiatives in the developing countries such as India, Latin America, Africa and several other South East Asian countries, Sharma was on her way to attend a regional conference for Asia Pacific countries organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Mongolia.

The Boeing 777-200 aircraft carrying 239 people lost contact over the South China Sea early Saturday morning on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, said a statement from the Beijing International airport.

International aviation authorities haven’t located the plane several hours after it went missing. Unconfirmed reports said the plane crashed 153 miles off Cambodia.

"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.

Besides five Indians, those on board include 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, the 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.