SEPANG, March 9 — Malaysia Airlines (MAS) maintained today that the mysterious disappearance of flight MH370 does not cast doubt on the safety of its current Boeing B777 aircraft.

MAS Group Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya told a press conference here that the national carrier has no plans to ground its fleet, following concerns raised over the safety of its aircraft.

“There are no plans at this stage to ground them. We are very confident in the safety of our fleet.

“It’s been a very reliable aircraft for the airline,” he said.

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

The Boeing was built in 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.

When asked if the aircraft had been involved in any previous accidents or collision, Ahmad Jauhari said the plane has a clipped wing tip.

He said in a previous incident, approximately one metre of the wing's tip was torn.

“And that has been repaired by Boeing and it was cleared by Boeing and it was appoved by various authorities, so it's actually safe to fly,” he said.

As a massive search and rescue operation continues near Vietnam in the South China Sea and on the west coast near near Penang, local authorities on the ground, including aviation experts, are still trying to determine how the aircraft had gone missing.

Earlier today, CNN's Christiane Amanpour reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is sending its agents to Malaysia “to support the investigation into the disappearance of Flight MH370”, as air search operations for the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) plane continued.

The report emerged following claims of suspected terror links and hijacking after two passengers in MH370's manifest confirmed that they never boarded the flight and their passports had been stolen some time ago.

The 12-year-old Boeing B777-200 aircraft was last heard from when it was travelling some 120 miles off the coast of Kota Baru at about 1.30am yesterday, 40 minutes after it left KLIA at 12.41am.