Frustration is growing among family members of passengers on the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 who have gathered in Beijing, complaining that they are being left in the dark.

AFP reported that the families of Chinese passengers on the flight have been gathered at a hotel in Beijing and some are angry for not being updated on the situation.

"They should have told us something before now," a man from the northern Chinese city of Tianjin is quoted by the news service as saying.

"We haven't been told anything about this, they are useless. I don't know why they haven't released any information," said another man, in his 20s, who was seen consoling his mother, AFP reported.

The majority of the flight's 239 passengers – 154 of them – are Chinese and Taiwanese nationals, with the second largest number, at 38, being Malaysians.

MAS regional senior vice-president for China, Joshua Law Kok Hwa was quoted by Bernama as saying the airline would provide the updates on its official website and Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter.
 
He read out an official statement issued by MAS at a press conference held at the Li Du Hotel at 2.30 pm (Malaysia time) today but declined to take questions.
 
The press conference, attended by more than 200 reporters, ended in less than 10 minutes.

MAS: Our team has left for Beijing

MAS said in a statement this evening said a team has departed for Bejing from KLIA at 4.30pm, to provide assistance to family members.

"We are deploying our 'Go Team' to Beijing, which will depart at 4.30pm with a team of caregivers and volunteers to assist the family members of the passengers," it said.

In contrast, families of passengers on flight MH370 gathered at KLIA have been asked to standby with their passports as they will be flown out as soon as the crash site is established.

MAS is holding a press conference every two hours at a hotel near KLIA.

Information is also trickling in slowly from various places, since the incident involves several jurisdictions across different countries.

The Boeing 777-200 took off from Kuala Lumpur at 12.40 this morning, bound for Beijing.

Local media in Vietnam reported the plane crashed off its coast but Malaysian authorities are still trying to verify this information.

MAS said as of 4.20pm today, the plane's exact location remained unknown.

Authorities in Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia are assisting in the search effort.