A group known as the Chinese Martyrs’ Brigade has reportedly claimed it is behind the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Stolen passports probed in Malaysian plane mystery Authorities questioned travel agents Monday at a beach resort in Thailand about two men who boarded the vanished Malaysia Airlines plane with stolen passports, part of a growing international investigation into what they were doing on the flight. Nearly three days after the Boeing 777 with 239 people on board disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, no debris has been seen in Southeast Asian waters. Five passengers who checked in for Flight MH370 didnt board the plane, and their luggage was removed from it, Malaysian authorities said. Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said this also was being investigated, but he didnt say whether this was suspicious. Luigi Maraldi, an Italian man whose stolen passport was used by a passenger who boarded the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. Photo: AP. The search effort, involving at least 34 aircraft and 40 ships from several countries, was being widened to a 100-nautical mile (185-kilometre) radius from the point the plane vanished from radar screens between Malaysia and Vietnam early Saturday with no distress signal. Two of the passengers were travelling on passports stolen in Thailand and had onward tickets to Europe, but its not known whether the two men had anything to do with the planes disappearance. Criminals and illegal migrants regularly travel on fake or stolen documents. Hishammuddin said biometric information and CCTV footage of the men has been shared with Chinese and U.S. intelligence agencies, which were helping with the investigation. Almost two-thirds of the passengers on the flight were from China. The stolen passports, one belonging to Christian Kozel of Austria and the other to Luigi Maraldi of Italy, were entered into Interpols database after they were taken in Thailand in 2012 and 2013, the police organisation said. Electronic booking records show that one-way tickets with those names were issued Thursday from a travel agency in the beach resort of Pattaya in eastern Thailand. Thai police Col. Supachai Phuykaeokam said those reservations were placed with the agency by a second travel agency in Pattaya, Grand Horizon. Thai police and Interpol officers questioned the owners. Officials at Grand Horizon refused to talk to The Associated Press. Police Lt. Col. Ratchthapong Tia-sood said the travel agency was contacted by an Iranian man known only as Mr. Ali to book the tickets for the two men. We have to look further into this Mr. Alis identity because its almost a tradition to use an alias when doing business around here, he said.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 15:19:10 +0000
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