Flight MH370 departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 00:41 on Saturday (16:41 GMT Friday), and was due to arrive in Beijing at 06:30. Air traffic controllers lost contact at 01:30.
At a time as yet undisclosed, a relative reportedly managed to call one of the passengers, who was carrying a Singapore phone. Malaysia Airlines has repeatedly tried to call the same number but no ringtone has been heard.
Could it have been a terrorist attack?
The airline says it is not ruling out any theory while officials in the US, which is sending FBI investigators, say there is no evidence of such an attack yet.
The presence of two passengers with stolen passports is a breach of security, but could relate to illegal migration. John Magaw - a former under-secretary for the US Transport and Security Administration and former director of the US Secret Service - has told the BBC there were "quite a few people that do fly, especially in that part of the world, with improper identification or false identification".
When an Air India plane crashed in Mangalore in 2010 en route from Dubai, with the loss of 158 lives, as many as 10 fraudulent passports were recovered.
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