Mobile phones of missing Malaysia Airlines passengers rang when the families called them, according to the Chinese media reports.
Family of an onboard Chinese passenger dialed his mobile phone number and found that it was ringing. However, nobody answered the call. A Beijing television news channel shows a man phoning his elder brother. The call connects but nobody answers. He reported it to Malaysia Airlines and said he called his brother thrice.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 carrying 239 passengers and crew members vanished from the radar, Saturday.
Another family member of a passenger also said the phone of their relative rang when they called before it rang out.
"This morning, around 11:40 [am], I called my older brother's number twice, and I got the ringing tone," said Bian Liangwei, sister of one of the passengers, reports USA Today. She called again at 2 p.m. and heard it ringing once more.
She also said that investigators should track down the plane's location with the help of mobile phones before their batteries run out.
"If I could get through, the police could locate the position, and there's a chance he could still be alive," she said adding that she gave her brother's number to Malaysia Airlines and the Chinese police.
But the representative of Malaysia Airlines said they tried dialing the number but couldn't reach. Ignatius Ong, a senior member of Malaysia Airlines management team said the number of the Chinese passenger given by his brother was passed on to the airline's head office in Kuala Lumpur, the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia and governments of both nations.
"I myself have called the number five times while the airline's command centre also called the number. We got no answering tone," Ong said at a press conference, Sunday, reports Free Malaysia Today.
According to a telecom service, they also tried calling the passenger but it showed the number was out of credit.
Ong said that the airlines will assist the families of the passengers to reach Malaysia and have started arranging for the first batch of relatives to go to the country.
