Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed on Sunday that Australia will send two aircraft to assist the searching of missing plane of Malaysia Airlines.

"This afternoon I spoke to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to convey Australia's condolences on the loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and offer our assistance with the search for the missing aircraft," Abbott said in a statement.

He said Australia has offered two RAAF P-3C maritime surveillance aircraft to help with the search for the missing aircraft.

Prime Minister Najib has accepted this offer.

Abbott said the first Orion departs for the search area Sunday evening from Darwin, northern Australia. A second P-3C will be dispatched as soon as possible.

The P-3C Orion is a long-range maritime surveillance aircraft ideally suited to this task, the prime minister's statement said.

"On behalf of Australia, I again offer my deepest sympathies to the families of the passengers and crew on board the Malaysian Airlines flight," he said.

The Malaysian passenger plane carrying 239 people has lost contact with air traffic control after leaving Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, the carrier said Saturday.

The Boeing B777-200 aircraft departed Kuala Lumpur at 00:41 a.m. local time (1641 GMT) Saturday, and was expected to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m. (2230 GMT). The plane was last heard from at around 1:30 a.m. (1730 GMT) Saturday.