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Southeast Asia | |||||
Interpol probes more suspect passports from missing flight | |||||
2014-03-10 | |||||
An Italian man and an Austrian man were falsely listed as passengers on Beijing-bound flight MH370, which disappeared after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur early on Saturday with 239 people aboard. Authorities later confirmed the two men - Austrian Christian Kozel and Italian Luigi Maraldi - were not on the plane, and their passports had been stolen in Thailand within the last two years. An Interpol spokeswoman said a check of all documents used to board the plane had revealed more "suspect passports" that were being further investigated. She was unable to give further information on the number of documents or the country they related to.
"Whilst it is too soon to speculate about any connection between these stolen passports and the missing plane, it is clearly of great concern that any passenger was able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in Interpol's databases," Secretary General Ronald Noble said. The database is currently available to law enforcement authorities but not to airlines, the spokeswoman said.
"If Malaysia Airways (sic) and all airlines worldwide were able to check the passport details of prospective passengers against Interpol's database, then we would not have to speculate whether stolen passports were used by terrorists to board MH 370," he added. There is so far no indication that the plane's disappearance is linked to the two passengers falsely travelling under the European passports. Authorities are currently trying to establish their true identities. Despite years of pressure from Interpol, in 2013 passengers were able to board planes a billion times without their passports being screened against the agency's databases, the agency said. | |||||
Posted by:Steve White |
#3 There are also reports (aka rumors) of five passengers who did not board. Idle speculation, assuming terrorism and not mechanical/flight problems: Terrorist attack - terrorism is as much about PR and theater as killing people. Curious that no one has taken credit. Maybe this was not the final target, but just a practice run. Or maybe the message is clear to someone (like the Chinese). Possible follow-on to the recent attack there. Assassination - someone suggested the target was not the plane but some specific passenger(s). Seems a little extravagant. But certainly thorough. Does account for no one taking credit. |
Posted by: SteveS 2014-03-10 22:21 |
#2 Stolen passports - Check No INTERPOL stolen passport review - Check One way tickets - Check Tickets purchased in cash - Check Tickets purchased by 3rd party (Iranian) - Check Suicide airline bomber(s) retaliatory attack test run - Yet to be determined. |
Posted by: Besoeker 2014-03-10 19:41 |
#1 ..so far, no black box ping, no wreckage, no (published) report(s) of a missile track (although ATC was, apparently, able to paint a course change of the a/c.). Weird.. |
Posted by: Uncle Phester 2014-03-10 17:53 |