Agonized families await answers over missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 - CNN International

• There were tense scenes in a Beijing hotel where families gathered to seek answers


• About two-thirds of the passengers on board Flight 370 hail from China or Taiwan


• The airline instructed them to head to Kuala Lumpur to await further news about the aircraft


• 12 nationalities were on board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight

(CNN) -- Anguished family members of passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 faced an agonizing wait for answers, as the aircraft remained unaccounted for more than 24 hours after its scheduled landing.

In China, where most of the 239 people on board originated, relatives of the passengers gathered Saturday in a conference room of a hotel complex in the Lido district of Beijing.

The atmosphere was tense as relatives pushed through throngs of media gathered outside, saying little as they focused on getting answers from the airline amid a mass of conflicting unofficial reports.

READ MORE: What happened to Flight 370?

Most presented a stoic front as they entered the room, which reporters were barred from entering. Others wept openly.

A young woman from the nearby port city of Tianjin broke down in tears as she told CNN that her boyfriend was on board the flight. They had plans to marry, she said.

The Chinese navy warship Jinggangshan prepares to leave Zhanjiang Port early on March 9 to assist in search and rescue operations for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Contact with the Boeing 777-200 was lost over the South China Sea after it left Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew. The Jinggangshan, an amphibious landing ship, is loaded with lifesaving equipment, underwater detection devices and supplies of oil, water and food.

Members of a Chinese emergency response team board a rescue vessel at the port of Sanya in China's Hainan province on March 9. The vessel is carrying 12 divers and will rendezvous with another rescue vessel on its way to the area where contact was lost Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

The rescue vessel sets out from Sanya port in the South China Sea.

A family member of passengers aboard a missing Malaysia Airlines plane is mobbed by journalists at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Saturday, March 8.

A Vietnamese Air Force plane found traces of oil in waters that authorities suspect to be from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, the Vietnamese government online newspaper reported March 8.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, arrives to meet family members of missing passengers at the reception center at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8.

Malaysia Airlines official Joshua Law Kok Hwa, center, speaks to reporters in Beijing on March 8.

A relative of two passengers on the missing plane reacts at their home in Kuala Lumpur on March 8.

Wang Yue, director of marketing of Malaysia Airlines in China, reads a company statement during a press conference at the Metro Park Lido Hotel in Beijing on March 8.

Chinese police stand beside the arrival board showing delayed Flight MH370 in red at the Beijing airport on March 8.

A woman asks a staff member at the Beijing airport for more information on the missing flight.

A Malaysian man who says he has relatives on board the missing plane talks to journalists at the Beijing airport on March 8.

Passengers walk past a Malaysia Airlines sign on March 8 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia.

Malaysia Airlines Group CEO Ahmad Juahari Yahya, front, speaks during a press conference on March 8 at a hotel in Sepang. "We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts" with the jet, he said.

Malaysia airliner loses contact

Malaysia airliner loses contact

Malaysia airliner loses contact

Malaysia airliner loses contact

Malaysia airliner loses contact

Malaysia airliner loses contact

Malaysia airliner loses contact

Malaysia airliner loses contact

Malaysia airliner loses contact

Malaysia airliner loses contact

Malaysia airliner loses contact

Malaysia airliner loses contact

Malaysia airliner loses contact

Malaysia airliner loses contact

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Photos: Malaysia airliner loses contact

Search for missing jet escalates

U.S.-based firm: 20 employees on plane

Stolen passports raise terror concerns

Another woman wailed for her missing son as she was led inside.

"My son was only 40 years old," she cried. "My son, my son. What am I going to do?"

A man who identified himself as a friend of passenger Yang Jiabao showed reporters the missing man's driver's license in the hope it might help authorities find the man.

Families reeling

Late in the evening, family members met with a Malaysia Airlines delegation that had been dispatched to the Chinese capital to provide support and information. At a press conference in the early hours of Sunday. Ignatius Ong, CEO of the Malaysian Airlines subsidiary Firefly and spokesman for the airline's management group, announced that the immediate families should head to Kuala Lumpur.

The airline would cover their travel expenses, and would fly the relatives to the plane's location "once the whereabouts of the aircraft is determined," he said.

With 12 nationalities onboard, Flight 370's disappearance left families around the world reeling.

Besides the Chinese passengers, which according to Chinese state media included a delegation of painters and calligraphers returning from an exhibition and a group of Buddhists returning from a religious gathering, the flight carried passengers from Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Australia, the United States, France, New Zealand, Ukraine, Canada, Russia and the Netherlands.

Stolen passports

The airline's manifest showed the passengers hailed from 14 countries, but later it was learned that two people named on the manifest -- an Austrian and an Italian -- whose passports had been stolen were not aboard the plane. The plane was carrying five children under 5 years old, the airline said.

READ MORE: Stolen passports raise questions

The family of Philip Wood, one of three Americans identified as among the missing, issued a statement describing him as "a man of God, a man of honor and integrity. His word was gold."

"Incredibly generous, creative and intelligent, Phil cared about people, his family, and above all, Christ," read the statement. "Though our hearts are hurting, we know so many families around the world are affected just as much as us by this terrible tragedy."

Texas-based firm Freescale Semiconductor confirmed that 20 employees were passengers on Flight 370. Twelve are from Malaysia and eight from China, the company said Saturday.

"At present, we are solely focused on our employees and their families," Gregg Lowe, Freescale's president and CEO, said in the statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by this tragic event."

Later, the company tweeted: "Your thoughtful words and prayers for Freescale families and friends affected by MH370 give comfort."

The company was making counselors available with around-the-clock support for employees affected by the tragedy, the statement said.

CNN's Yuli Yang and Dayu Zhang in Beijing contributed to this report.

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