Boeing offers 'deepest concern' over flight MH370

Boeing has expressed sympathies to the families those aboard flight MH370, the Boeing 777 that disappeared from radar and has been 'missing' since early this morning.

“Boeing offers its deepest concern the families of those aboard missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370," the makers of the missing plane Malaysia Airlines (MAS) plane said in a statement on its website today.

The plane-maker also announced that it has assembled a technical team to aid in the investigations.

“Boeing is assembling a team to provide technical assistance to investigating authorities,” it said.

Flight MH370 is a Boeing 777-2H6ER aircraft that was purchased in 2002, bearing the registration number 9M-MRO.

The Boeing was built on April 2002 and delivered to MAS on May 31, 2002, according to the database in Aviation Week, a global aviation industry service provider, making it nearly 12 years old.

MH370 was also the 404th plane to come of the 777 model production line.

The plane is powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 892 engines, which most commonly powers this particular model.

The last crash involving a 777 with the same engine was on January 17, 2008. A British Airways Boeing 777-236ER flying from Beijing to London crash-landed at Heathrow airport.

Both of its Trent 800 engines lost power during the aircraft’s final approach, which investigators found were caused by ice released from the fuel system restricting oil flow to the engines.

The first fatal crash in the Boeing 777's 19-year history came in July 2013, when an Asiana Airlines jet landed short of the runway in San Francisco. Three of the 307 people aboard died, one of whom was hit by an emergency truck after surviving the crash.

Malaysia Airlines had an incident with a 777 in August 2005, when a flight from Perth to Kuala Lumpur flying 11,580 metres above the Indian Ocean shoot up 915 metres due to the plane’s software incorrectly measured speed and acceleration. However, autopilot was disengaged and the plane landed safety in Perth. The incident forced a software upgrade on planes around the world.

Despite these cases, Aviation experts have expressed surprise at the sudden loss of contact with the Boeing 777 as they said it had an 'almost flawless safety record'.