Dozens of ships and aircraft have failed to find any piece of the missing Malaysia Airways Boeing 777 that vanished more than two days ago above waters south of Vietnam.
Malaysian maritime officials have found some oil slicks in the South China Sea and have sent a sample to a lab to see if it came from the plane.
Hundreds of distraught relatives were gathered in a hotel in Beijing, waiting to be flown to Malaysia. Of the 227 passengers, two-thirds were Chinese. There were also 38 passengers and 12 crew members from Malaysia, and others from elsewhere in Asia, Europe and North America.
As hope fades for relatives of the 239 people who were aboard Flight MH370, attention is focused on how two passengers managed to board the aircraft using stolen passports.
Ibrahim Mat Zin, a local well-known "bomoh" (the Malay term for a shaman), holds two coconuts as he performs a ritual to help finding the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 at Kuala Lumpur International AirportReutersMalaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Crash MapPolice CCTV images of an Iranian suspect, Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, who was travelling on Flight MH370 with a stolen Austrian passport, and an unidentified man travelling with a stolen Italian passportGettyPouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad (second from left) and a man who is believed to have travelled with him on Flight MH370Major General Datuk Affendi Buang briefs the media in Kuala LumpurGettyA patrol vessel of Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency searches off the Kelantan coastGettyMembers of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency search off the coast of Kelantan, MalaysiaGettyA military personnel takes photos from the window of an aircraft belonging to the Vietnamese airforce during a search and rescue mission off Vietnam's Tho Chu islandReutersAn oil slick is seen from an aircraft belonging to the Vietnamese airforce, off Vietnam's Tho Chu islandReutersMilitary personnel work in the cockpit of a helicopter belonging to the Vietnamese Air Force during a search and rescue mission off Vietnam's Tho Chu islandReutersA relative of a passenger onboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is surrounded by the media at Lidu Hotel in BeijingGettyJournalists attempt to interview a distraught relative of a passenger on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at Beijing Capital International AirportReutersArni Marlina shows a family picture on her mobile phone, at a hotel in Putrajaya. Marlina's stepbrother Muhammad Razahan Zamani (bottom R), 24, and his wife Norli Akmar Hamid, 33, were on their honeymoon on the missing flightReutersA girl lights a candle next to a message that reads "Pray for MH370" during a candlelight vigil in Kuala LumpurReutersMalaysian ethnic Chinese launch a lantern with wishes on it at a candlelight vigil for the passengers of Malaysia Airlines MH370 near Independence Square in Kuala LumpurReutersIndian sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik applies the finishing touches to a sand sculpture on a beach in Puri, in the eastern Indian state of OdishaReutersThis floating object that was spotted from a Vietnamese search aircraft was originally thought to be a life raftTienphong
