Missing Malaysia airlines plane a "mystery"

Search and rescue planes scour the waters off southern Vietnam, looking for any trace of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner.

The aircraft vanished from radar screens in the early hours of Saturday with 239 people on board. Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur went missing about an hour into its flight to Beijing.

Malaysia's civil aviation chief has said the fate of a missing jet remains "a mystery". He did not rule out a hijacking as a possible cause.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR GENERAL FOR DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AVIATION, AZHARUDDIN ABDUL RAHMAN, SAYING:

"And as far as we are concerned, we are equally puzzled as well. The honourable prime minister used the word perplexing. We are equally puzzled as well. And to be confirmed what really happened on that particular day, on this ill-fated aircraft, we need hard evidence, we need concrete evidence, we need parts of the aircraft."

More than 20 aircraft and 40 ships from seven nations are involved in the search.

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