>> an awful lot of revenue. the show may be over but the conversation continues. you can find us on facebook and twitter @ajconsiderthis. have a great weekend. >> good evening everyone, i'm john siegenthaler and welcome to al jazeera america. we begin with breaking news on a missing jumbo jet. a malasian airlines flight vanished when it left kuala lumpur.

richelle carey is here now. racial. >> a malasian plane, pretty large plane a boeing 777. scheduled to land in beijing more than five hours ago. air traffic control lost contact with this plane about two hours after takeoff from kuala lumpur. four u.s. citizens are on board, we know that now, three adults and one infant. three adults and one infant. the airline says the plane was over the south china sea when it lost contact, when last contact was made. the airline says authorities have activated search and ep rescue teams to try to locate the aircraft. the company is trying to make contact with family members and crew as well. the last major accident involving a malasian airlines

plane was back in september of 1995. that is what we know right now. news of the missing malasian aircraft rippled through social media at the beijing international airport the information boards list was in red. this woman believed to be the relative of a passenger reacting the news. malasian airlines are connecting the passengers and crew families. >> news conference at the kuala lumpur airport. ross, tell us what you know and what happened at the press conference. >> basically, the -- i mean all the same information, the number of passengers, nationalities, and yeah, and report about technician, that plan and the

group, just said they are working on it, it was going to address anything new besides what we already know. >> there were -- so there were reports that there were reports on social media, rumors that the plain had landed in naning china and the airline said they didn't know anything about that right? >> they are working to verify that, as of now they lost any contact and didn't have reports of landing anywhere inside china. >> reports that vietnam officials say that they detected some signals that might be the airlines. was any of that mentioned at the press conference, raj? >> no, sorry, actually i'm just hearing of that now. no one asked that question and there's no mention of it. >> so in the meantime, did they

give any indication, malaysia airline officials when we might get more information? >> we are not sure. they said they will just keep us us updated. just wait and see. the last contact was 120 kilometers nautical miles east of a town in malaysia, in the south china sea, off the south china sea. in the south china sea, sorry. >> raj, thanks for that information. just a short time ago i tuk tald to our florence lui and asked her what she knows. >> the official said the company had lost contact with the flig flight. rumors are going and that the plane landed in a city in china and they are working to verify

the authenticityivit authenticie reports. working very closely with emergency responders and have also contacted passengers next of kin to notify them yet to be able to make contact with the plane. now he also said that the -- that they've not as far as they're aware they have not received a distress signal from the flight before they lost contact with the aircraft. the last point of contact was at a point somewhere over the south china sea which would have been on the rare craft flight path on its way to beijing. >> florence lui in kuala lumpur. it can hold up to 37,000 gallons of fuel, it weighs 545,000 pounds. can travel 6,000 miles,

typically flying routes london to new york or san francisco. with us, todd, welcome. you know there's a lot we don't know. but give me your -- your response to the possibility that vietnam officials have gotten some signals from the airliner. what does that tell you? >> it tells me what you just said. there's a possibility they received signals. until they get some further confirmation. such as sighting of the aircraft or we hope not, sighting of wreckage of the aircraft. these could be signals from the emergency locator transmitter which would activate in the event of crash or signals from other aircraft. the aircraft are equipped with transponders and pilots could dial in a particular code to broadcast out to any radar that happens to paint the aircraft with a radar sphal.

and some of those codes would indicate that there's an emergency or that something else may be going on. so the vietnamese thoshts haven't specified what kind of signals they were getting. so until some other information is given i'm going to withhold judgment. >> todd, take me through this. how does an airline follow an aircraft and then lose where it is? >> it can be done either by tracking it with radar or by long range radio communication. now, depending on the route, depending on the country, depending on the procedures of that airline there may also be some communication with the airline itself. either of maintenance data or other foirgs. malasian airlines have not stated whether or not they had direct communication with the company or whether they're

relying on direct control. >> what does that tell you? >> again unless they specify with what they mean by losing contact it could have meant it should have been under radar coverage and the radar wasn't picking them up. it could be they are required to report by intervals are and stopped reporting, or could be some other communication from the aircraft wasn't being received as examined. they aren't giving -- expected. they aren't giving that level of details. >> it has to have landed somewhere or i assume crashed. how much fuel does it have for a flight like this, and give us an idea about the capability of this plane? good well, typically, an airliner from one city to another will have enough fuel to make that flight plus reserve amount of fuel to circle or

divert to another airport. conceivably if this is estimated to be a six hour flight there might be a minimum of seven hours of fuel on board. that said, radar was lost or contact was lost roughly two hours into the flight. so literally depending on which way the aircraft was flying if it was still flying, it could have gone into its intended route into china, it could have turned east or west completely away from its intended track. there is not enough information to know what happened to this aircraft. that's implying the search engine -- go ahead. >> to give us the idea of what the tools are on board that might be able to help locate this flight, what will authorities be looking for? >> the most important tool that's on board is going to be the emergency locator transmitter, the elt. if the aircraft crashes, this is designed to operate

automatically, without input from the pilot. for internal battery inside the device. it can be picked up on radio in the ground or even by satellites. so if the aircraft did crash this should have activated. the other way this aircraft could have activated is the transponder or the vois communication that the pilots would have to use. and of course, it would have the frequency used for air traffic controllers in that area. so they should have had the information to -- >> if you will stand by for just a second, i want to go to beijing, rob mcbryde is following this from the airport and brings us more. rob. >> that's right. i mean there have been very chaotic scenes here at beijing

capitol airport, we're in the arrival hall, it is five hours since passengers from this aircraft should have been arriving here. people have been told very little here. several hundred media have arrived, they are now told a news briefing is taking place, nearby, many have gone there. a sign has gone up behind me, we assume one of the airlines staff has put up the sign any relatives to go to that hotel. there have been earlier on one or two people here who we assume were relatives, who were trying to find out about what may have happened to the aircraft, and their loved ones and very distressed. they were quickly taken away by airport staff here. there were we understand 160 or so of the passengers on board were chinese nationals. so obviously, very big interest here in china in just what has happened to this airport. and really there has been all

sorts of rumore rumored rumors,g faster than mainstream media. not helped over some confusion over reports out of vietnam. there was one reports quoted by by chinoicss, who detected a signal from the aircraft. we get another report from one of the news wires, news agencies saying that is not the case. this is a very confusing scene here in beijing. >> rob, i guess it is midday where you are. when was this flight supposed to arrive and how late is it now? >> well, it was due to arrive here 6::30 a.m. local time here. it is now as you said midday here.

some five hours after we would have expected passengers to be coming through to be riebing. they haven't -- arriving. they haven't heard from the aircraft, they lost contact two hours out of kuala lumpur. we understand the aircraft was still in vietnamese air space. we don't know whether that air space was over land or over sea. we understand though the search operation that's been organized is concentrating on the area of the south china sea so that is going on. the chinese authorities here have said that as far as they're concerned this aircraft did not enter chinese air space. so that is as much as we know at the present. >> can you tell us when the families got the first indication, that something was wrong with this air flight? >> they -- we understand people have been turning up here, have

been told by the airline officials, that they've lost contact with the plane. that was as much as they were told. it seems that the families were told as much as the media were told when they were turning up at the airport. the relatives have been told to go to nearby hotels. it may be if the airline does know more information, if any of the authorities are chinese authorities know more information than that, then they might be briefed. but that's just speculation. the people turning up i think were some of the people turning up here, turned up once they heard that there was a problem with this aircraft. those were the relatives that we saw here being taken away very distraught. meanwhile in the departure lounge, the he departure desks upstairs at the terminal, the plane that was due to arrive here, would turn back and go back to malaysia, peep were told they were put on another

airlines. that is the indication from the staff that we're not expecting this aircraft to arrive. where it is, no one knows. authorities providing us with information. >> rob i believe you said earlier there's going to be another news conference at a hotel nearby? >> we understand that there is a news briefing taking place. it could well be though, that the news briefing is just repeating the same statement as being issued by malasian airlines from malaysia. we don't know as yet what the content of that news briefing is, just what further information they'll be able to impart or tell us. part of the problem here i guess is just the part of the world where this has happened. this was possibly over water where it was last detected. we're dealing with different authorities here. we have the chinese authorities, we have the authorities in

vietnam. so you're having different jurisdictions here, different sets of officials. it is really difficult to get a handle on just what's happening at the moment with this aircraft. >> we appreciate it, rob mcbryde, recording from bay ying. we'll try to get -- beijing. our own afn schauffler is in seattle where boeing has a huge operation. allen i know you're trying to get set up. what can you tell us? >> we are having contact with the company, they are keeping an eye on the situation, monitoring, nothing more than that. normally in this kind of situation, aviation experts tell us that boeing will send a team, an investigative team to a crass site, if a crash is found. but generally they'll wait until that is identified, they'll be

asked to come in and they'll be on their way, you can bet on that. this plane is made in everett, one of boeing's safest planes, 300 more are on order right now, and the air miles that they've flown are pretty staggering. 18 millionaire miles. more than 5 million flights and just one flight or one accident rather that resulted in fatalities. people probably remember the asiana airlines, last year that was the only 777 accident that, crash that involved a fatality. boeing hanging on with the rest of us waiting to see what happens in terms of this malasian airlines john. >> boeing is contacted immediately when something is wrong with one of their planes,

right? >> absolutely. they would be aware and aware very early on and you can bet that they have people in the region who are prepared to go wherever they need to go and people from this area who might be tasked to head out on an investigative team. they just don't know where to go at this point just like the rest of us. >> allen schauffler, in seattle, thank you very much. i want to go to kevin corriveau with another map and talk about the weather in that area, kevin. >> that's right john. whenever an airplane crashes we look first thing at the weather. i took a look at what's happening right now. most of the map is fairly quiet. when the plane is in altitude anywhere from 32,000 to 42,000 feet, it tends to be above any of the problems. there were no thunderstorms in this region, south coast of china we think this is the area of concern. now normally planes do not have

problems when they're in air, they take off as well as landing. so turbulence was that a problem? we really need to have those thunderstorms. as you can see these were clear skies. as we go through the rest of the day, today and tomorrow, recovery as well as search efforts will not be hindered by any type of weather at all. so that's one good thing for the rest of this -- >> so it's clear, was it clear as a bell? >> yes, up towards china we had some weather and down near kuala lumpur we had some weather but nothing in the south china sea. >> up next barbara bush the former first daughter, shines a light on millions of women at rick. >> plus an nent youn innocent yn

spent years on death row. for a crime he didn't commit.

>> now to the standoff in ukraine which is keeping president obama busy on a holiday weekend. he discussed the issue with junior man chancellor angela merkel. about 30,000 troops there. the pentagon says the total could be closer to 20,000. pro-russia forces are keeping ukrainian soldiers on alert. tonight that happened in the middle of the night in the port city of sevastopol where armed men took a ukrainian military base over. jennifer glasse is there. >> reporter: vladimir lenin still stands in the area not far from sevastopol. now, the residents fear this might repeat itself.

>> not so long ago when the tatars were deported from crimea, the same thing happened. within 15 minutes people were thrown out of their homes. >> reporter: tatars who came back here in the 1980s and 90s don't plan to let it happen again. so far it's been quiet. the tatars history of oppression by the russians, has this district wondering how they might be treated. international support? it's certain it won't come in time. >> if putin makes any decision he makes it in the morning and in the evening it's already implemented. no bureaucracy, no delays, nothing. and as for u.n. structures or european or osce organizations it takes months. by then it will be all over. >> reporter: and things are moving fast. the city council of sevastopol

voted thursday to become part of russia. perhaps trying to help predetermine a referendum on crimea's future on march 16th. that was brought forward by the region's pro-- russian parliament. >> considering the geopolitical situation, the sooner we will be done the quieter it will be and the people will be safer. >> russian forces surrounding ukrainian military units calling them for surrender. not an ideal environment for a referendum. michael works to bring investors to sevastopol. he says the crimean people are not under control. >> after all this is a game between russia and the united states. they are the major players of this game. if they come to good agreement, then definitely, everybody will be happy. >> reporter: here in this naval city and across crimea

there's no agreement in sight. and growing concern that the longer the military standoff continues the harder a diplomatic solution becomes. and john, russia continues to consolidate its political strength here putting much pressure on the ukrainian military which refuses to surrender its flag and its weapons and the political supporters of russia here also consolidate its gains. one has to wonder whether the people of crimea will really have a choice when that day comes. >> jennifer glasse, thank you very much. coming up, raising the russian flag the bottom of the hour. in other news job growth was stronger than expected in the u.s. this last month. adding about 175,000 position. the job rate edged up to 6.7%,

that's because more people started to look for work. consumer breaches at target and other retailers have highlighted the need for more secure credit cards. now visa and mastercard have formed a new group to bring credit cards into the 21st century. the first step is to adopt emv technology, which stores on a microchip rather than a magnetic strip. mastercard and visa have set a deadline of next month for that. coming up, latest developments in the disappearance of the malasian airline.

>> welcome back to al jazeera america i'm jeeght. breaking news tonight.

malaysia airlines has loss contact with one of its jet liners on its way from kuala lumpur to ba beijing. richelle carey is here with the headlines. >> boeing 777, flight mh 370 was scheduled to land in beijing almost six hours ago. lost contact about two hours after it left home base. four american citizens are on board, three adults and one infant. conflicting reports of signals from the aircraft. search and rescue is trying to find this missing aircraft. beijing capitol international

airport, the flight is listed in red. this woman believed to be a relative of the passenger, clearly emotional. about 90 minutes ago malaysia airlines he ceo held a news conference at an airport hotel. >> our focus now is to work with emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support. and our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members. >> obviously john this has been an ago fiezing few hours. -- niezing -- agonizing few hours. >> richelle, thank you. our transportation contributor todd curtis is back from boston. todd i understand you have new information. >> yes, the new information i have been able to get is that at the moment and this was talked

about a bit by schauffler, by boeing and more important the ntsb haven't launched any official teams. the country of the manufacturer, the united states and the manufacturer itself in this case boeing are typically one of those team members in the investigation but the fact that they have not been called officially and they have not launched a team means like they're like us, they're still trying to figure out if indeed there has been some sort of crash, some sort of accident. >> okay tom curtis thank you very much. we're going to turn to another story, we can get back to this one if we learn anything new. the u.s. has been scrambling to keep the country in one piece and russia at bay. future with moscow not kiev. in the small city of kurch.

>> the unmarked green trucks all drive one direction. according to ukrainian intelligence, the steady stream means russia has more than doubled its forces here. >> consume can anybody tell me where you're from? >> this is one of the ukrainian army's east most bases. making ukrainian pri ukrainian s prisoners inside their own base. entirety controlled by russians whose supporters are happy to brave the cold. >> there is no ukrainian army left he says so we need protection. but there's going to be a referendum on crimea's future this city has already voted. first place where they lowered the ukrainian flag and raised the russian flag on city hall. an activate, three miles away.

for igor chumak that same view is painful. his family has lived in this spot for decades. first they were soviet, ethnic russians and have always looked east. >> i served in the soviet army, he says, i feel russian. it is unpleasant when they make me speak ukrainian. he says life was better, he had rubbing water. -- running water. now he has a well. he accuses ukrainians of letting live in the stone age i don't beef in any ukrainian government, not the old one, not the future one, not the current one. thanks to these men he now lives under a new crimean government. constantine is both political organizer and militia leader.

he says he has 4,000 fighters. we can mobilize a big army within an hour he says. he wants to join russia because he believes crimeans are culturally different than western europeans,. >> what we see in west urine, we see homosexual people, we don't want to live like these people about. >> that hatred targets the city's few pro-western activists. maria is a human rights protester. she's not sure how long she can hold out. >> if this referendum passes, what happens to you? >> i will leave. there is no democracy, no free press. increasingly it is become a home for those who have just arrived.

nick schifrin, al jazeera, kirch, ukraine. . gls 18th government protesters in venezuela. yesterday motorcycle driver was shot and killed in caracas. he and other bikers were dismantling a barricade put up by antigovernment protesters. a national guardsman was also killed in that crash. the opposition says the government is using motorcyclists to break up. anthony graves was convicted for the 1982 murder of a grandmother and five children. he was exonerated in 2010. and now he says the prosecutor withheld evidence that could have cleared him at the trial. he's filing a grievance against former prosecutor charles

sabesta, hoping to have his law license revoked. anthony joins us, it's good to have you on the program? >> it's good to inviting me. >> did you know this all along? >> as far as the greenhouse is concerned? >> yes. >> i had hoped to one day be able to file a grievance. but you know the law had at the time restricted me from filing it because the statute of limitation ran out before i was exonerated. but now that the law has been bn changed, senate bill 825. the statute of limitations doesn't start until you're released and goes back four years. with that being said i'm not able to seek justice and i'm glad of it. >> when i think about your story and read about it? i don't -- are you still angry?

how do you control that anger? i would be furious. >> no, no. i'm not angry. that to me, anger does nothing but continue to take from your life. i mean, i've been given a second chance at my life and i'm blessed to have this opportunity to come out here and live as a free man again, when i seen so many other guys who lost hope and who's never going to come out and they're going to be executed. so i have no place for anger in my life. i mean i'm moving forward. i used my story to go and inspire others. i speak at churches and universities and law firms, and just share my story, in a positive way so that we can all learn something from it. >> do you believe in the justice system? >> yeah, of course i believe in the justice system. we have a great justice system. it's just the people that we entrust to uphold the rules and laws of our system are letting

us down. >> it's not broken? >> you know we're -- you know it just -- it needs some upgrade. that's what it is. i always say sort of like the model t when it was first rolled out. it was the best thing going you know? but overtime, the cars now there are more upgrades to make them safer, faster and more efficient. that's just what we need to do with our system. we need to upgrade it. >> you have a remarkable attitude. can you tell me what your life has been since you got out? >> my life has been a whirlwind. i speak all over the world, i speak at universities, law firms, i'm just trying to inspire others with my story. this is not a story of tragedy but triumph and victory. it is a story that is here to inspire others and encourage people to get involved and you know make sure we do have a system that protects us all. so i put my face out there to represent all those things that can be positive if we all come

together and make our system work the way it's supposed to. >> was there ever a time during those years, those long years on death row that you gave up hope? >> no, no, no, you know what was the alternative? i could never give up hope. and i think most of the reason why i didn't give up hope was, i was naive. i really thought our system worked. that's what they taught me in the schools. so i was naive to believe that at some point justice would prevail. i just have to hold on. i think nig nigh naive takte ga. >> are you you surprised that

nobody reached out or the our are spoke to you? >> i've spoken to a lot of officials. i've been given a resolution on the state senate floor. i've met a lot of people who have shook my hand and apologized to my on behalf of the state. i haven't met any of the mayors that caused this -- players that caused this to happen to me. but you know i don't lose no sleep over it. i mean i'm too busy trying to inspire people across the globe. >> was race a factor? >> race is always a factor, you know, it's just -- we tend to not want it to be a factor but the reality is that it's always the elephant in the room. and it was definitely the elephant in the room that caused me to lose 18 and a half years of my life. and it's something that we should continue to talk about. but it's something that is threr and we need to really -- there

and we need to understand that because it's there we need to put some safeguards into place to protect people from their own hidden agendas. >> you have an incredibly inspiring story and i think we can all learn a greatly deal from your attitude. >> well, you know if that's the case then the 18 and a half years that i did would not be in vain. >> i'm proud to meet you and i appreciate you joining us tonight. thanks very much. >> thank you so much, sir. >> coming up. breaking news, a jumbo jet with 239 people on board bound for beijing disappears. we have the latest developments.

>> we are beginning to feel more like spring across much of the northwest, that means we have the fear of nooding going on, montana into wyoming. we had -- flooding going on, montana into wyoming. parts of washington it is going to be flood watches, that are in effect for the western part there. temperatures here on saturday, how about 55 for seattle and portland, oregon is going to be seeing about 61°. now where we've seen a big change in temperature is here across much of the northern plains. fargo you're going to start with a day of 24° but that is going to go up considerably to about 45. if you remember last week we were talking about minus

temperatures across this area. so a big improvement for you there. here across the northeast we're going to stay fairly nice. the rain is going to stay off the coast. new york, saturday temperature going up to about 49° there. staying in the 40s most of the weekend but by the time we get into tuesday how about 57°. that's a look at your weather. news after this. working ther can be. >> how do you say..."get out the way"? >> shoro >> can this brittish man find common ground with his local host? >> "must really take it out of mr. loteef"... >> toughest place to be a ferryman on al jazeera america

>> sexual violence, some say it's become a global epidemic. the united nations says there are 150 million girls worldwide who experience some form of sexual assault. lisa stark reports. >> i feel it's important for me to claim it because so many people are afraid to say that they're a rape survivor. >> salamicia tillits journey has not been an easy one. but she says speaking out has helped her heal.

she says she was sexually assaulted twice, once by her boyfriend at the university of pennsylvania. >> i said no repeatedly. but i couldn't come forward and tell people i was sexually assaulted, i few him. i just kind of moved on. >> then in her junior year in kenya she was attacked by an acquaintance. >> it was so violent, i couldn't rationalize it away. there is a persistent myth that as a young woman, you will go out alone and someone will attack you on the street when you're much more likely to be attacked by someone you know. >> an international partnership of organizations trying to high lied and combat sexual violence worldwide. >> we feel there is sort of a ground swell, people are paying attention. >> her work is gaining attention

with the support of global health care, helped by barbara bush, daughter of former president george bush. at together for girls joya helped launch safe, an online magazine devoted to the topic of sexual violence. >> it is full of content, some of which stories are hard to read, they have overcome this thing that has happened to them and have really fewer flourished. one is salomisha, educating young women about sexual assault. >> it's the number 1 crime on college campus possess.

>> an estimated one of five women will be sexually assaulted at college. only 12% of them report it to law enforcement. it's because victims often feel they're the ones being blamed. both salomisha and joya hope we are reaching a tipping point that increasing attention to sexual assault is forcing organizations to treat these crimes sierlz and will encourage more -- seriously and will encourage more victims to come forward. leaslisa stark, al jazeera. >> our guest is broosh bush, daughter of former president george bush. >> thank you for having me. we bring, ensure our fellows like joya, will get real,

greater change or health issues. women's health issues throughout their careers. >> you deal with some tough issues when you are talking about sexuality and reproductive health issues. how difficult is it, how sensitive is it to deal with this topic around the world? >> quite sensitive but we think it's quite important that there is a new generation of health advocates that can really move the needle on these issues. investing in women not only are they healthier but their entire families and community are. we find that working on these issues is a game changer and can have a mobilizing effect. >> you told me this the last time. how would you characterize the progress that's been made in the treatment? >> i think that we've made unbelievable progress in hiv. ten years ago it was basically impossible to get the drugs that you need to live if you were hiv

positive in a developing country. now that's not the case at all. you can have access to antiretrovirals almost regardless where you live. and it's 95% possible for a moll mother that's hiv positive to give birth to an hiv negative baby. means we can have an hiv free lifetime within my life i hope. we have global health fellows working in newark, new york, boston and d.c., what we found is the majority of the issues that they're working on don't require medical treatment. it's understanding health systems. it's understanding the knowledge that you need to make healthy decisions and live a healthy life. that can be seen in hiv in terms of prevention, but also, if a

mother is hiv positive and is giving birth she needs information. >> i was surprised the number of applicants you have for these jobs. it's a huge number and it's clear that just like you you wanted to give back, you wanted to address global health issues. there are other young people trying to do that. >> yes, absolutely which i think is really exciting. we see students across college campuses around the united states and around the world that want to use their lives for social change and to make social impact. we want to funnel talent through the door and launch great game changing careers in health. >> on the eve national women health day, how would you characterize this around the world? good i think we've made tremendous strides.

women have started to live equally as long if not longer than men, which was not the case, having less babies, choosing healthier options or the their children, which is can change communities. that being scheduled we still have a long way to go. less than half a million women die in childbirth which is completely preventible with trained medical attendants. we have great solutions to saving women's lives. now it's about getting to the next mile and do that. >> where do you go from there? do you continue down that path? >> it's saddening that we accept only 2% of the people that apply to our program. we want to leverage people's careers to truly change global health issues. so we know the more people that we can get in ghoablg healthy and the more our fellows

understand navigatin navigatingd changing policy to save people's lives, then we can deal with the preventible diseases that people deal with around the world. >> thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> the missing malaysia airlines jet. the boa boeing 777 was over vie, it was supposed to arrive about five hours ago. there are reports radar contact was lost over vietnam's air space. our rob mcbryde is at the airport in beijing where families have been waiting for that plane. here is what he had to say. >> there have been confusing scenes at beijing international airport. it has been about six hours since the plane was supposed to

rieb, news started to emerge that plane had disappeared, many of the media in beijing started to arrive, couple hundred media running around. some of the relatives turning up here quite obviously distressed once they heard that the aircraft had disappeared and wasn't turning up. one or two people had been taken away by authorities obviously distressed. we understand that relatives are being looked after by airlines staff at a couple of hotels close to the airport here. some while ago, an airport official came out putting an announcement that there would be a press briefing at a feesh hotel and also telling any relatives turning up to come to this hotel. at the moment confusion reigns. we don't know what happened to the aircraft. officially it was flying through vietnamese air space when contact was lost, eight or nine

hours ago now. we are waiting to see what happened to this aircraft. >> rob mcbryde reporting from beijing. the malaysia flight is a boeing 777. allen schauffler is live with us now. allen you say this is a real workhorse for boeing right? >> absolutely. this is one of the safest planes in the air, one of the company's best-selling models. they have made and shipped more than 1100 boeing 777, the 777-200 long range model as well, 300 more on order, so they are sold all over the world. tremendous safety record as we mentioned before. they only had one flight in 19 years where there was a crash can fatalities involved.

the company itself just staying very quiet tonight. this is the entirety of their statement. we're closely monitoring reports on malaysia air flight mh 370. our thoughts are for everyone on board. that's all they told us when we spoke to a representative earlier tonight about this. they are waiting to see exactly where this plane is found, if it is found. we can assume there will be a boeing investigative team in the air or in the water when the flight is located. >> once they find out what happened, then they launch, is that it? >> absolutely. it would be customary for the airline to request and for the country where the crash site is to request that help from the company and also from the u.s. government. we would expect that would happen. we have not heard that that has happened at this point. boeing just saying they are keeping and eye on things and not saying much more than that.

>> 227 passengers we believe on board, 12 crew members. >> yeah. >> this is a long -- this makes some long flights, right? >> absolutely. this is the kind of plane depending on how it's configured and which of those models, can fly 5500 to 9,000 miles. they have tremendous range. that's why they are such a popular plane around the world, reasonably efficient on fuel, and that kind of thing. the boeing company is waiting and watching just as we are. >> allen schauffler in seattle tonight. thank you so much. continue to stick with al jazeera america for more information on this breaking news story.

>> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm richelle carey. the top story, a missing jet liner. malaysia airliners, a boeing

777. the airliner was scheduled to flieivarrive in beijing more thx hours ago. the airline was over the south china sea when last contact was made. this is a photo of the exact plane. four adults and one infant, americans were on board. about two hours ago, malaysia airlines ceo held a press conference in beijing. >> our focus is to work with the authorities and mobilize its full support and our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members. good news of the missing malasian airlines aircraft quickly traveled through social

media. the beijing airport listed the missing flight in red. we'll continue to follow this breaking story through the night. i'm richelle carey. "america tonight" with joie chen is next. you can get the latest online as well at aljazeera.com. >> on "america tonight": the blade runner's toughest challenge. stunning testimony in the trial of olympian oscar pistorius. make way. oscar how do you feel the trial is going? a case that raises new questions about the shocking level of domestic violence in south africa. also, tonight, new worries in crimea. the crisis in ukraine threatens to explode in a new round of clashes. canned he can't pass