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The Hawk 108 fighter jet took off from Kuantan airbase in south east Malaysia this morning when it lost contact around 11.30am local time (4.30 GMT).

Bernama news agency said the two pilots of the aircraft were found in a swamp near Chukai in Terengganu at 2.30pm on Thursday.

The victims were identified as Major Hasri Zahari, 31, and Major Yazmin Mohamed Yusof, 39.

Both airmen were found with their parachutes strapped on, but the wreckage of the jet is yet to be located.

A major search and rescue mission was launched after the aircraft went missing north of Kuantan near the Pahang-Terengganu border, The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) has confirmed.

The RMAT said: “The aircraft took off from the Kuantan airbase at 11am and we lost contact at 11.30am."

In a statement on Twitter, Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein described the incident as "troubling" and said he was praying for the safety of the pilots.

(Image: DS)

(Image: GOOGLE)

The disappearance comes three years after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished in March 2014 with 12 crew and 227 passengers on board.

The Boeing 777 vanished while on a flight from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing, with all passengers on board feared dead.

More than £100 million was spent on an underwater search spanning 120,000 square kilometres (46,332 square miles) in the southern Indian Ocean.

The search has now been suspended with no trace of the aircraft found there, and is likely to remain the world's greatest aviation mystery.

Earlier this year it emerged a "secret passenger" was onboard the doomed flight when it mysteriously vanished.

An investigator searching for wreckage has said there was another previously unknown person on the flight.

Andre Milne, the founder of defence technology company Unicorn Aerospace, set up the £1.3million appeal to search the Bay of Bengal – and now claims to have made a bombshell finding.

An official report into the tragedy states the cargo manifest from the flight logged 228 onboard – not 229.

“The 228 is the number of seats sold as of 2 hours before the flight,” Mr Milne told express.co.uk.

“The 228 does not include the 2 children who sit with their parents.

“It has been ‘claimed’ that four people did not board the plane. That would make the final number of seats used down at 224."

(Image: GETTY)

Mr Milne’s theory is that the “other” person on the flight was a hijacker who took down the jet.

He added: “The extra passenger likely acted in conjunction with larger external operational support to take full command and control of the cockpit of MH370.”

Iow Tiong Lai, Malaysia's transport minister, announced that the search for MH370 was being suspended.

He said: "In the absence of new credible evidence, Malaysia, Australia and China have collectively agreed to suspend the search upon completion of the 120,000 sq-km search."

The disappearance of the Hawk 108 jet comes just weeks after a military plane carrying 122 people vanished after taking off from from Myanmar – previously known as Burma.