Malaysia Airlines plane en route to Beijing Goes Missing with 239 aboard

A Malaysia Airlines flight with 239 passengers went missing over the South China Sea on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on Saturday, prompting China to send ships to search the waters for a possible wreckage.

"Our team is currently calling the next-of-kin of passengers and crew," the airlines' group chief executive officer, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, said in a statement on CBS News. "Focus of the airline is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support."

"Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members," he said.

The plane last contacted air traffic controllers two hours after it took off 120 nautical miles from the east coast of Kota Bharu in Malaysia, the airline said on Saturday.

If the plane is found to have crashed, it would mark the second fatal accident involving a Boeing 777 in less than a year.

For more on this story read the full report at CBS News.