Chinese government to send joint working group for Malaysia

BEIJING - The Chinese government will send a working group later Monday morning to Malaysia for handling the aftermath of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight.

The group is scheduled to leave Beijing on March 10 morning and arrive in the country later the same day.

According to the website of China's Foreign Ministry, the group is composed of officials with the foreign ministry, ministry of public security, transport ministry and civil aviation administration.

It aims to coordinate with Chinese Embassy in Malaysia to handle the relevant issues, including urging the Malaysian side to speed up search and rescue mission, investigating the incident and helping the family members already in Malaysia.

China is making all-out efforts to locate the missing passengers on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, almost two-thirds of them from China.

The Boeing 777-200 aircraft left Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 0:41 a.m. Beijing time on Saturday and was expected to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m.

Contact with the flight was lost along with its radar signal at 2:40 a.m. Beijing time on Saturday when it was flying over the Ho Chi Minh air traffic control area in Vietnam.

The flight was carrying 12 crew members and 227 passengers, including 154 Chinese.