Not a single piece of Malaysia Airlines’ missing Boeing 777-200 aircraft has been found, as its disappearance entered the 60th hour.

Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said all reports of objects sighted near where Flight MH370 went off the radar on March 8, were false alarms or were unverified.

"Yesterday, two search-and-rescue aircraft spotted what looked like parts of an aircraft but when ships were despatched to the area, it was made known to us that there were logs tied together like a pontoon,” he told a press conference at Sama-Sama Hotel, KL International Airport this afternoon.

"There were also reports that the Vietnamese had located and identified a piece of the aircraft - the inner part of an aircraft door.

“That report was not officially verified by the Vietnamese authorities. We immediately called (them) last night and they confirmed they have not spotted any such object.

"Therefore we are unable to inform all of you whether any object was found."

The aircraft, which took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport and was bound for Beijing, disappeared from the radar at 1.20am on March 8, off the southern coast of Vietnam.

The only lead the DCA has had to date are oil slicks, discovered by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency on the second day of the search-and-rescue operations.

"That (oil) sample has been sent to the labs and hopefully when we receive the report from the lab, we will inform you," he said.

'Searching in the dark'

The search-and-rescue operation is combing an area up to a radius of 50 nautical miles (almost 100km) near the site where the plane was believed to have lost contact with air traffic control.

Azharuddin said the authorities are also covering all bases by mobilising searches in the northern region of the Malacca Straits, amidst concerns that the pilot might have attempted to turn back the aircraft - based on radar data that was analysed.

"To date, we have used a large number of assets comprising 32 aircraft, 40 ships, hundreds of men and thousands of man-hours.

“The countries assisting us include Vietnam, China, Singapore, Indonesia, the US, Thailand, Australia and the Philippines.

"The air search is conducted daily from 7am to 7pm and the search at sea continues throughout the night.”

Azharuddin, who repeatedly referred to Flight MH370 as "ill-fated", said the cause of  disappearance of the aircraft cannot be narrowed down until pieces of the plane care recovered for forensic analysis.

He added there is no time frame as to how long the search-and-rescue operation will take, pointing to the Air France Fight 447 disaster - in that instance, it took two years to fully recover the wreckage.

'We will take as long as it takes," he added.