On plane which disappeared on Friday: Jewish resident of Siberia

On Friday night, a Boeing 777 of Malaysia Airlines, with 227 passengers and 12 crew members, which was on its way from the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing - disappeared.

Aboard the plane, was one Jew. This is Nicholai Brodsky, 43, a father of two children, resident of Siberia and a member of the Jewish community in Irkutsk , Siberia.

Rabbi of the city and county and Chabad emissary Rabbi Aharon Wagner, is in constant contact with the family to encourage and support them at this difficult time.

Rabbi Wagner who knew Mr. Brodsky personally, indicates that he is a Jew with a warm heart for Judaism and the entire community received the news of the tragedy with harsh feelings. Rabbi Wagner relayed the information to the office of Russia's Rabbi, Hgr"b Lazar, in order to receive halachic guidance.

About two hours after the scheduled flight MH370 took off, when the plane was over the skies, all contact with it was lost. Malaysia Air Force chief Rodzeli Daoud said that the military radar showed that the Boeing 777 may have tried to turn back, but did not disclose how much the passenger jet was off course. "There are indications that the plane turned around, and we are trying to understand the significance of this fact".

A few hours after contact with the plane was lost, an official of the Vietnam Navy estimated that the flight apparently crashed in the South China Sea, near the Vietnamese island of Tao Chu.

The U.S. has announced that will send a team of agents from the FBI to assist in the investigation.

According to the National Commission of Search and Rescue, 13 aircrafts and 29 ships are searching the area where it was reported yesterday on oil and fuel stains. Shinhoah Chinese news agency reported that a vessel from Singapore found "unidentified objects" in the water, but there is still no official confirmation that they are connected to the Malaysian plane.

Minister of Transport of Malaysia Hishamodin Hussein said this morning that four passengers are checked on suspicion of involvement in the incident, since two of them held stolen European passports.

U.S. officials said last night to NBC news that authorities are also examining the possibility that the plane crashed as a result of a terrorist act. The fact that the plane had disappeared from the radar without transmitting any signal of distress raised the suspicions of investigators.

According to notification sent from Malaysia Airlines, the 227 passenger plane belong to 14 different nationalities, including at least 154 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, 7 Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French, three Americans and citizens from Russia, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria. Aboard the aircraft were also a Chinese baby and an American baby. The company released the full list of passengers.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!