SEPANG, March 8 — While pictures of the heart wrenching scene at Beijing Airport — where family members of passengers on board the still-missing MH370 — are already all over the media, the scene at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) was starkly quiet.

Families of those aboard the Malaysia Airlines flight and airline staff started gathering at the KLIA this morning to get news of the missing plane.

While some had tears in their eyes, they were mostly quiet and kept their heads bowed as they rushed past waiting photographers, avoiding the bright camera flashes, and refusing to speak to the press.

Dozens of family members — Malays, Chinese and Caucasians — and MAS staff streamed in past the viewing area at the airport.

“Many family members have come in and out,” an auxiliary policeman, who declined to be named, told The Malay Mail Online at KLIA here today.

Four Malay women, who were among the family members, walked in to the waiting area with tears in their eyes.

A man in a suit, who said he was from the Italian embassy, also headed towards the waiting area.

Most of the MAS staff who came, bringing their luggage bags, were Chinese. A majority of the 227 passengers aboard the missing plane are Chinese nationals.

It is understood the MAS staff will leave for Beijing later today to be caregivers to families of Chinese nationals on board the still missing MH370.

The entrance to the waiting area, situated away from the viewing area on the fifth floor of the airport, was guarded by five police officers who did not allow the media to go in.

A representative from the Taiwanese Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation Malaysia said that there are 15 volunteers from the NGO providing care to the families at the airport.

“There are 20 volunteers on standby at Subang,” she told reporters here after emerging from the waiting area, without identifying herself.

A total of 239 people - including 12 crew members - were aboard the MH370 bound for Beijing.

A major Vietnamese daily reported today that the plane has crashed into the sea, off the Tho Chu island in Vietnam.

According to the report, the Vietnamese High Command of Navy issued a statement to confirm that the Boeing B777-200 aircraft went down some 300km off the island located near Cape Ca Mau in Vietnam’s Kien Giang Province.

MAS has yet to confirm the report.

At a press conference earlier this afternoon, MAS group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said a search-and-rescue team is still trying to locate the missing aircraft.

He said the plane was last heard from when it was flying some 120 nautical miles off the coast of Kota Baru, Kelantan near the South China Sea.

Jauhari also said no distress signal has been received as yet.

Earlier today, MAS confirmed that Subang Air Traffic Control lost contact with the Boeing B777-200 plane at 2.40am, some two hours after the Beijing-bound aircraft departed from KLIA at 12.41am.

The plane was scheduled to arrive at Beijing at 6.30am local time.

According to Jauhari, there were a total of 14 nationalities among the 227 passengers and 12 crew.

This includes 153 Chinese nationals including one infant, 38 Malaysians, 12 Indonesians, seven Australians, three French nationals, four from the US including one infant, two from New Zealand, two Canadians, two Russians, one Italian, one Taiwanese, one from Netherlands and one Austrian.

Jauhari said the family members of those onboard the missing flight are being contacted.

A search and rescue mission has also been mounted, involving both Malaysian and Vietnamese officials.