PUTRAJAYA, Mar 10 — As night fell on the second day of the search for flight MH370, the lobby of The Everly Hotel was heavy with the weight of solemn yearning by relatives of the passengers of the missing plane.

People who were once strangers stood around talking about their loved ones, asking about each other’s families as they continued to hope for the best.

The buzz generated by the throng of journalists looking to speak to distraught family members earlier in the day had quietened down, as most joined those gathered in the hotel to quietly watch the news on television to get a rundown on the day’s events.

And all the while, volunteers from Malaysia Airlines’ emergency operations centre (EOC) continued their vigil as they remained at the ready to assist anxious relatives waiting for any news on the missing passengers.

It had been a hard day all round, and clearly a challenging time for the volunteers as they tried their best to manage the crush of media workers camped out at the hotel lobby and raging tempers of some family members who were unhappy with the lack of information coming their way.

Even as one relative angrily shoved away a volunteer who tried to stop a group of journalists from interviewing him, they could only ask for everyone’s co-operation and try their best to keep the peace.

A volunteer later explained that while they were not given orders to bar family members from speaking to the media, they were advised to minimise contact between worried relatives and journalists looking for stories. This was to avoid fanning already high emotions.

Though the day had since wound down for most at the hotel, the volunteers remained on duty, periodically checking on how the family members were holding up and making sure they were comfortable.

“Regardless of whether we know the crew on the missing plane or not, we are now in crisis mode and we just have to do our jobs,” a senior company executive on the EOC said when contacted, referring to the 12 crew members on board flight MH370.

The senior executive, who declined to be named, noted that once Code Red is activated, volunteers are put on 24-hour shifts wherever they are required to provide whatever assistance they can.

This applied to the group of 90 over GoTeam volunteers who landed in Beijing yesterday morning, as with the EOC volunteers stationed at The Everly and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

“There is no fixed pattern for the shifts, but it will be at least 24 hours. As long as we are in crisis, we will just keep going... it will be a long period for all of us,” the executive added.

The fate of the 239 lives onboard the missing Boeing 777-200 remains unknown, as over 80 maritime vessels and aircraft were dispatched by Malaysian, Singaporean, Chinese, Vietnamese, American and Australian authorities to help the search and rescue operations.

Full search and rescue efforts resumed at first light today.

Volunteer rescue workers and religious organisations pray during multi-religion mass prayers for the passengers of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, at KLIA in Sepang March 9, 2014. — Reuters pic