The aerial search for the missing Malaysian Airliner is set to resume this morning but marine rescue teams from several countries worked through the night to search the sea south of Vietnam. Flight MH370 disappeared en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, with 239 people on board early yesterday morning.

No distress signal was received from the plane and there has been no trace of wreckage. There were no reports of bad weather and no sign as to why the Boeing 777-200ER would have vanished from radar screens about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia Airlines has told passengers' next of kin to come to the international airport in Kuala Lumpur with their passports to prepare to fly to the crash site, once it was identified. About 20-30 families are being kept in a holding room at the airport, where they were being guarded by security officials, away media glare.

The airline said people of 14 nationalities were among the 227 passengers, including at least 152 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French and three Americans.

It has been reported that two passengers who were listed on the plane's manifest, an Italian and an Austrian, were not actually on the flight. They both reportedly had their passports stolen in Thailand years ago.

Asked whether terrorism was suspected as a reason for the plane's disappearance, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said they are looking at all possibilities, but it is too early to make any conclusive remark.