Largest patrol vessel in S China Sea en route to rescue mission

GUANGZHOU - The largest vessel in South China Sea "Haixun 31" is heading for Sanya city in south China's Hainan province, where it will standby for search and rescue mission for missing Malaysian Airline flight.

The vessel left Maoming Port in Guangdong at 9:00 p.m., where it will wait for orders of deployment, the Guangdong provincial bureau of marine affairs said.

Eight ships belonging to the Nanhai Rescue Bureau and the Hainan Maritime Safety Administration are also waiting for orders.

A Boeing 777-200 aircraft operated by Malaysia Airlines left the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 00:41 a.m. Beijing time on Saturday and was expected to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m., after a 3,700-km trip.

Contact with the flight was lost along with its radar signal at 1:20 a.m. Beijing time on Saturday when it was flying over the Ho Chi Minh air traffic control area in Vietnam.

The flight has 227 passengers, including 154 Chinese, and 12 Malaysian flight crew.