SEPANG, March 8 — Search and rescue efforts to locate the missing Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will continue throughout the night despite the lack of light, local authorities confirmed today.

The Transport Ministry and the Department of Civil Aviation said the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) and the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) are “committed” to continue plying the inky waters between Malaysia and Vietnam until rescue efforts are officially called off.

“This is our commitment. We will go on around the clock,” said RMAF director-general of operations and exercise Major General Datuk Affendi Buang at a press conference at the Sama-Sama Hotel here.

Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Aziz Kaprawi said the search and rescue mission has been expanded to the east and west coast of the peninsula, which includes checks along the Penang and Malacca straits.

It has been over 20 hours since the plane last communicated with the Subang Air Traffic Control, and many continue to speculate the plane has crashed in the Gulf of Thailand, some 250km south of Vietnam.

The last coordinates where the aircraft was last heard from at 1.30am this morning puts it somewhere 120 nautical miles off Kota Baru.

Earlier tonight, Datuk Seri Najib Razak vowed that search and rescue operations to locate missing MH370 aircraft will continue for as long as necessary.

The prime minister also confirmed that no signs of any wreckage have been found so far, despite numerous rumours that the Boeing B777-200 aircraft had crashed off the coast of southern Vietnam.

He urged for an end to the endless speculation on the fate of the Beijing-bound flight, which has been missing since 1.30am this morning.

Najib also said that the Malaysian authorities have expanded their search operations over the area where MH370 was last heard from.

MAS confirmed early this morning that MH370 lost contact with the Subang Air Traffic Control at about 2.40am, some two hours after the flight left from KLIA.

It was later clarified that the plane disappeared from the radar screen even earlier at 1.30am, when the plane was hovering about 120 nautical miles off Kota Baru.

The Beijing-bound aircraft was carrying 239 passengers onboard, including 12 crew members and two infants.