Official tells of previous false identity incidents
Print Edition
A SENIOR Malaysian police official said people armed with explosives and carrying false identity papers had tried to fly out of Kuala Lumpur in the past.
He said the current investigation was focused on two passengers who were on the missing plane with stolen passports.
“We have stopped men with false or stolen passports and carrying explosives, who have tried to get past KLIA (airport) security and get on to a plane,” he said. “There have been two or three incidents, but I will not divulge the details.”
On Sunday, Interpol confirmed that at least two passengers used stolen passports and said it was checking whether others on the plane had used false identity documents.
Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, head of Malaysia’s Civil Aviation Authority, said a hijacking attempt could not be ruled out as investigators explored all theories for the loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
“Unfortunately we have not found anything that appears to be objects from the aircraft, let alone the aircraft,” he told reporters. “As far as we are concerned, we have to find the aircraft. We have to find a piece of the aircraft if possible.”
Azharuddin said the two men with stolen passports did not look like Asians, but did not elaborate. Airport CCTV footage showed they completed all security procedures, he said.
More suspect passports
The passenger manifest issued by the airline included the names of two Europeans — Austrian Christian Kozel and Italian Luigi Maraldi — who were not on the plane. Their passports had been stolen in Thailand during the past two years.
An Interpol spokeswoman said a check of all documents used to board the plane had revealed more suspect passports.
A European diplomat in Kuala Lumpur cautioned that the Malaysian capital was an Asian hub for illegal migrants, many of whom used false documents and complex routes to reach a final destination in Europe.
“You shouldn’t automatically think that the fact there were two people on the plane with false passports had anything to do with the disappearance of the plane,” the diplomat said.
A senior source involved in preliminary investigations in Malaysia said the failure to find any debris indicated the plane may have broken up mid-flight, which could disperse wreckage over a very wide area.
“The fact that we are unable to find any debris so far appears to indicate that the aircraft is likely to have disintegrated at around 35,000 feet,” the source said.
Asked about the possibility of an explosion, the source said there was no evidence of foul play. The plane could have broken up due to mechanical causes.
Still, the source said the closest parallels were the bomb explosions on board an Air India jetliner in 1985 when it was over the Atlantic Ocean and a Pan Am aircraft over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988. Both planes were cruising at around 31,000 feet at the time.
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