- Focus on passengers who boarded with fake passports
- Desperate search for plane or wreckage intensifies
OFFICIALS have revealed that up to five passengers checked in to fly
on missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 — but didn’t board the plane.
Their luggage was taken off after officials realised but it is not clear how they fit in to the mystery of the vanished jet.
Speaking
at a press briefing in Kuala Lumpur today, the director-general of
Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation said a huge international search
had failed to find any wreckage from the Boeing 777, let alone the
plane itself.
Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said authorities were
mystified after a search involving 34 planes, 40 ships and more than 100
people had been unable to locate any trace of the aircraft.
“We have not found anything that appears to be an object from the aircraft, let alone the aircraft," he announced.
READ MORE: TEARS FLOW FOR MISSING AUSTRALIANS
He said countries from around the
region and the world were contributing to the search effort and it would
continue until they had answers.
“Every second, every hour, we are looking at every inch of the sea,” he said.
“We
are looking at all angles of what could possibly happen on that
flight,” Mr Rahman explained when asked if there could have been an
explosion onboard.
“Also there is talk about possible hijack and
this is not discounted. We are looking at every angle. We are looking at
every aspect of what could have happened.”
He said the Malaysian authorities were “equally puzzled” — as all aviation experts were — about what had happened to the plane.
“A mystery is how you can put it,” he said.
Sea search ... a Vietnamese aircraft looks for the missing flight. Pic: Hoang Dinh Nam.
Source: AFP
Mr Rahman would not comment on the ongoing investigation into two men who travelled on the flight using stolen passports.
There
are reports that a Malaysian government minister has confirmed that the
men using stolen Italian and Austrian passports were of Asian
appearance but Mr Rahman would not be drawn on this.
“The
authorities concerned are investigating the case. The investigative team
is now, as we speak, is going through all the reports, going through
all the video footage and once we get any report from them we will
inform to all of you,” he said.
He also confirmed that some
passengers who checked in for the flight did not end up flying and their
baggage was removed from the aircraft under flight regulations before
take-off.
Spotted ... Malaysian authorities say this debris is not from the missing plane.
Source: Supplied
“Yes there are issues about passengers that did not fly on the aircraft. There are five of them,” Mr Rahman said.
“All baggage of passengers not flown on that particular morning was removed from the aircraft.”
Intelligence
agencies around the globe have joined the so-far fruitless search for
answers to the mysterious disappearance — with the threat of terrorism
unable to be discounted.
More than two days after the plane
carrying 239 people, including six Australians, lost contact with air
traffic controllers, reports emerged of a door being spotted by aerial
search teams in waters of the Vietnam coast.
READ MORE: THE UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
However, Mr Rahman confirmed that any such debris did not come from the missing aircraft.
Investigators
are also now probing whether the plane attempted to turn back in the
last moments before it vanished enroute from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on
Saturday.
As the desperate search operation continues over a
widening expanse, intelligence agencies, including the FBI, are focusing
their efforts on two passengers who boarded the aircraft with stolen
passports.
So far there is no evidence of terrorism, with a source telling America’s
NBC News that no electronic “chatter” had been detected linking any known terror group to the likely disaster.
And
while several alternate theories have emerged — including that the
plane simply disintegrated in mid-air — authorities continue to
reiterate that they simply do not know what happened and are looking
into every possibility.
FEW SIGNS FOUND IN SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSION
There was hope early today that Vietnamese searchers had spotted possible aircraft debris.
“We
received information from a Vietnamese plane saying that they found two
broken objects, which seem like those of an aircraft, located about 80
kilometres to the southwest of Tho Chu Island,’’ said an official from
Vietnam’s National Committee for Search and Rescue, who did not want to
be named.
The island is part of a small archipelago off the
south-western tip of Vietnam, and lies northeast of Malaysia’s capital
Kuala Lumpur, from where Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 left early
Saturday bound for Beijing.
The deputy chief of staff of Vietnam’s
army, Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, was quoted in the state-run Thanh Nien
newspaper as saying that searchers had spotted what appeared to be a
door from the missing jet.
“From this object, hopefully (we) will find the missing plane,” Tuan said.
READ MORE: PASSENGER LIST A RICH TAPESTRY OF LIFE
However, Mr Rahman said such reports could not be confirmed and no debris or wreckage from the plane had been found.
He
said the search — involving eight nations — would be intensified. The
search region has already been widened from 20 nautical miles (37km) to
50 nautical miles (92.6km) of the last point of contact of the plane.
Mixed signals ... the flight track of Malaysian Airlines flight 370.
Source: AFP
AUSTRALIAN ORIONS IN THE HUNT
One Royal
Australian Air Force Orion search aircraft left last night bound for
RAAF Butterworth in Malaysia, where it will be based for the search
effort.
The second left Darwin this morning.
READ MORE: DREAM TRIP TURNS TO TRAGEDY
Acting Chief of the Defence Force, Air Marshal
Mark Binskin, said the Orion is ideally suited to this type of
operation, with its variety of sensors and electro-optics detectors.
“This
is a terrible tragedy and the Australian Defence Force stands ready to
do all it can to assist our Malaysian friends,” Air Marshal Binskin said
in a statement.
“This has affected all Australians very deeply and our thoughts are with the families of all those caught in this incident.”
PILOT MAY HAVE TRIED TO TURN BACK
Late
Sunday, Malaysian officials said that MH370 may have inexplicably
turned back towards Kuala Lumpur in its final moments as they tried to
shed light on the mystery of what may have caused a reliable aircraft
model with no known safety issues to slip off the radar.
“There is
a distinct possibility the aeroplane did a turn-back, deviating from
the course,” said Malaysia’s air force chief, General Rodzali Daud,
citing radar data.
SEE PICS: SHOCK AND SADNESS AT MISSING PLANE
But Malaysia Airlines (MAS) chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said the Boeing 777’s systems would have set off alarm bells.
“When
there is an air turn-back the pilot would be unable to proceed as
planned,’’ he said, adding authorities were “quite puzzled’’ over the
situation.
Tragedy ... a relative of a passenger amid a press scrum in Beijing.
Source: Getty Images
The plane, captained by a veteran MAS pilot, had relayed no
indications of distress, and weather at the time was said to be stable.
The
search zone has been extended after military radar showed a possibility
that the plane made a “turn-back” and the area for the search and
rescue now includes the Malacca strait.
Authorities say they are using both the military and civil radar in their probe and “trying to make sense of it”.
READ MORE: SYDNEY COUPLE WERE RE-STARTING LIVES
A team of American experts is en route to Asia
to assist in the investigation, including officials from the National
Transportation Safety Board, as well as technical experts from the
Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing. The FBI is also being sent,
although officials stressed there was no evidence of terrorism yet.
Concerns
have been expressed that the flight may have been targeted by an
anti-Chinese group such as the Uighur militants from China’s restive
Xinjiang province in the country’s northwest but, again, there is no
evidence or claim of responsibility so far.
In fact, sources told
NBC News that only “wackos” had so far claimed to be behind the
incident, as often happens in the wake of global catastrophes.
Known
terror groups such as al Qaeda traditionally seek credit after
perpetrating attacks but have stayed quiet, with no “chatter” — or
intercepted communications — picked up by intelligence agencies about
the plane.
Search and rescue ... life jackets inside a Vietnamese aircraft. Pic: Hang Dish Nam.
Source: AFP
MYSTERY PASSENGERS
Questions are still being asked about how the two passengers managed to board the ill-fated aircraft using stolen passports.
Interpol
has confirmed it knew about the stolen passports but said no
authorities checked its vast databases before the jetliner departed
Saturday en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Warning that “only
a handful of countries’’ routinely make such checks, Interpol secretary
general Ronald Noble chided authorities for “waiting for a tragedy to
put prudent security measures in place at borders and boarding gates”.
Last
night, officials revised the number of people travelling on fake
passports on the plane from four to two. There was confusion after one
officer said it was four but later another official said it was
definitely only two.
False identity ... Luigi Maraldi shows his passport after reporting in to Thai police.
Source: AP
The duo were captured together on CCTV from check-in to
boarding and the vision is being examined by investigators desperate to
find out what happened to the flight.
Mr Rahman would not confirm the nationalities of the two men or their origins.
READ MORE: STOLEN PASSPORTS OF TERROR?
Unofficial reports state two European names —
Christian Kozel, an Austrian, and Luigi Maraldi of Italy — were listed
on the passenger manifest but neither man boarded the plane, officials
said. Both had their passports stolen in Thailand over the past two
years.
Thai police said they were investigating a possible
passport racket as flight information gave new details about bookings
made in Thailand with the two stolen European passports.
The
tickets booked in Maraldi and Kozel’s names were made on March 6 and
issued in the Thai city of Pattaya, a popular beach resort south of
Bangkok.
The e-ticket numbers for their flights are consecutive and both were paid for in Thai baht. Each ticket cost $690.
“Kozel’’
was booked to travel from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on MH370, then on to
Amsterdam and Frankfurt. “Maraldi’’ was booked on the same flights until
Amsterdam, where he was to continue to Copenhagen.
READ MORE: DID BROKEN WING WEAKEN THE PLANE?
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was careful not to comment on terrorism claims.
“I
am really not going to feed speculation. People should not jump to
conclusions, we just don’t have answers to these questions,” he said, as
he refused to buy into commentary on the stolen passports.
However, he urged people not to be scared of flying in the wake of the incident.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop admitted the revelations about stolen passports were concerning.
No answers ... Malaysia Airlines officials at a press conference in Beijing.
Source: Getty Images
“There may be no connection at all, but nevertheless it is a worrying development,” she told ABC Radio.
Ms Bishop claimed she was not aware of any pre-existing concerns about passport controls in Malaysia.
“But it has been a global issue for some time,” the Minister said, arguing she didn’t think it was an isolated incident.
Immigration
Minister Scott Morrison said the revelation about stolen passports
reaffirmed the need to increase the use of ePassports.
“It’s one
of the reasons why we need to go more and more towards the chip
passports, which have the biodata in them so it only improves the level
of checks which can be done,” Mr Morrison told 2GB Radio.
INVESTIGATION INCLUDES DAMAGED WINGTIP
Malaysia
Airlines says the Boeing 777-200 that disappeared had suffered a broken
wing tip in 2012 but was fully repaired and cleared to fly.
The
incident occurred in a minor collision with another aircraft on the
ground at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport, according to previous
reports.
“The aircraft had a clipped wing tip. A portion,
possibly a metre of the wing tip, was torn,’’ Malaysia Airlines CEO
Ahmad Jauhari Yahya told reporters.
“It was repaired by Boeing and cleared by Boeing and was approved by various authorities. It was safe to fly.’’
