The Kuala Lumpur-based carrier competes with AirAsia domestically, and with the likes of AirAsia X, Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways and Cathay Pacific on international routes.

The airline, part of the Oneworld alliance that includes British Airways and Qantas, has 88 aircraft in its fleet, including Airbus A330s and A380s, and Boeing 777-200s and 737s, according to its website.



They include 15 777-200ERs, one of which was involved in Saturday’s disappearance. These aircraft are deployed on its long-range services within Asia-Pacific and to Europe.

Its fleet of 777-200ERs has an average age of 14.2 years, according to airfleets.com, an authoritative website that tracks airline fleets, making it one of the oldest such fleets of 777-200s in the world.



Malaysia Airlines gave the registration number of the aircraft as 9M-MRO, indicating the plane is 11 years and eight months old. It was powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engines, an airline official confirmed by telephone from Kuala Lumpur.



The airline was set to order Airbus A330 or A350 aircraft to start replacing some of its older 777s from 2016, with the management having identified fleet replacement as a key plank of its plan to turn around the loss-making airline.



The last fatal incident involving a Malaysia Airlines aircraft took place on 15 Sepember 1995, when 34 people died after a Fokker 50 crashed on approach to Tawau, a town in the eastern state of Sabah.



Before that, in 1977, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737-200 crashed in Tanjung Kupang, in Johor state, killing all 100 people on board. That was the deadliest crash to date involving a Malaysian aircraft.



The Boeing 777 is the US plane maker’s most popular wide-body aircraft and has one of the best safety records of any commercial aircraft in service.



The first serious incident took place in January 2008, when a British Airways 777-200ER crash-landed just short of London’s Heathrow airport, injuring 45 people. In July 2011, an Egypt Air 777-200ER had a fire in the cockpit while parked at a gate in Cairo and was evacuated without injuries. Both aircraft were written off.



The only fatal crash so far came on 6 July last year when Asiana Airlines flight 214 struck a seawall on landing in San Francisco. Of 307 people aboard, three died and more than 180 were injured. The crash investigation, while still ongoing, has so far indicated no mechanical failure and focused on the pilots’ failure to recognise that the plane was flying too low and too slowly as it approached the runway.