Terror probe over missing Malaysia Airlines jet

[webfact]

MISSING MAS
Terror probe over jet
Agencies, Asia News Network


A Buddhist group holds a special prayer for passengers and crew of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia, yesterday.

Malaysia investigating if plane turned back, 2 people on flight used stolen passports

KUALA LUMPUR: -- Malaysia yesterday launched a terror probe into the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 239 passengers and crew, including some suspected of boarding with stolen passports, while other possibilities suggest the plane had made an unannounced decision to turn back.

The United States has sent agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into why flight MH370 vanished from radar screens early on Saturday somewhere between Malaysia and Vietnam, but it stressed there was no evidence of terrorism yet.

Malaysian authorities also expanded their search for wreckage to the country's west coast, and asked for help from Indonesia. Searchers had concentrated on waters to the country's east, in the South China Sea.

Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Malaysia would be working with foreign intelligence agencies, including the FBI, on the matter.

"If it is an international network, Malaysian immigration alone will not be sufficient. We have also informed the counter-terrorism units of all relevant countries.

"At this point, we have not established if there was a security risk involved (and) we do not want to jump the gun," he said when asked if there could be any hijack or terror elements in the disappearance of the MH370 flight.

In regard to two "impostors" who boarded the flight using passports reported lost by an Italian and an Austrian, Hishammuddin said authorities would screen the entire manifest of the flight.

The two people who used stolen passports were captured on closed-circuit television at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director-general of the Malaysian Civil Aviation Department, said yesterday that the CCTV recordings would be used in the department's investigations.

"We have CCTV recordings from the point of check-in right up to departure point," Azharuddin said in a press conference.

Italian Luigi Maraldi, whose name is on the manifest, was not on the missing MAS flight.

According to news reports from Italy quoting its foreign ministry, Maraldi's passport was stolen last August while he was in Thailand.

London's Daily Mirror also reported that a second passenger was using a stolen passport. Austrian Christan Kozel has been confirmed as safe and well by authorities. He told Austrian newspaper De Standard that his passport was stolen when he visited Thailand two years ago.

The suspicious identities have fuelled speculation of a terrorist attack. A Malaysian security analyst said the sudden disappearance of flight MH370, which left Kuala Lumpur early Saturday bound for Beijing, bore similarities to the Pan Am flight 103 bombing in 1988.

The sudden loss of contact indicated that whatever happened "did not give time for the pilot or any people on board the plane to react", he said.

Defence Minister Hishammuddin said the main priority at the moment was to locate the missing aircraft.

Malaysia's Air Force confirmed the possibility that flight MH370 performed an air turn-back. This was according to a recording captured on military radar, Air Force chief General Rozali Daud said.

He described an air turn-back as a flight which had deviated from the flight path and into a reciprocal heading.

"We are also baffled by the no signal from the ELT (emergency locator transmitter) emergency beacon.

"What we have done is to look into the recording on the radar that we have and we realised that there is a possibility that the aircraft had made a turn-back.

Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, CEO of Malaysia Airlines, said an air turn-back could be launched when a pilot is unable to proceed on the planned flight path.

"Normally, he (the pilot) makes the decision to turn back but he will report to the base and also to the ATC (air traffic control centre).

"From what we know, from both the ATC recordings as well as our own (the base), there was no such distress signal or distress call.

"So, we are equally puzzled as well," he said.


-- The Nation 2014-03-10

[OMGImInPattaya]

How does a 777 just disappear in a crowded air-space like SE Asia? How does it just disappear in a relatively shallow body of water like the Gulf of Thailand?

[belg]

and then, thai rumours start about ufo abduction, silly, right... when your GF start to talk crap amongst them

[sirchai]

He described an air turn-back as a flight which had deviated from the flight path and into a reciprocal heading.

Or it had lost the wing which was badly damaged in an accident in 2012 and the plane turned, then broke into many little pieces through decompression.

Too many false news around.-

Edited March 10, 2014 by sirchai

[Borzandy]

Malaysia, Thailand, and all the Asian countries are not interested concerning the security. The life is very cheap here.

[sirchai]

How does a 777 just disappear in a crowded air-space like SE Asia? How does it just disappear in a relatively shallow body of water like the Gulf of Thailand?

If it exploded in the air because of the wing failure,then decompression, a bomb, etc...there'd be only pieces coming down.

And those pieces could be in the Gulf of Thailand, in Cambodia, or somewhere else.

[Samaaw]

Also as the passports were stolen in Thailand (Phuket) - why not have more emphasis on the Thai side of this news... like "channel news asia" even reported that the airtickets of the two false passport holders, were bought in Pattaya and are consecutive numbers !!

Thaivisa news reports need to be more accurate and give more information as well as follow up on stories !

[hawker9000]

How does a 777 just disappear in a crowded air-space like SE Asia? How does it just disappear in a relatively shallow body of water like the Gulf of Thailand?

It didn't. S. China Sea. Or at least that's what's being reported. But 2 hours into a flight from KL to Beijing would have it well past GOT I'd think.

[deemon]

Time to check all pictures on the passports of the passenger’s and compare with the CCTV and see who not fit in.
Then publish the pictures in media and find out the name of the 2 ghosts.

After that I think we can have an idea if they are false immigrants or terrorists

[Samaaw]

Malaysia also has to clean up their act !! If this is terrorism then they need to answer ALOT of questions!!

In the past -

Bali Bombings - Malaysian National

Jakarta Ritz Carton Bombing - Malaysian National

[Samaaw]

Time to check all pictures on the passports of the passenger’s and compare with the CCTV and see who not fit in.

Then publish the pictures in media and find out the name of the 2 ghosts.

After that I think we can have an idea if they are false immigrants or terrorists

The Malaysian Authorities are playing this down BIG TIME

[OMGImInPattaya]

Just read that 2 ONE-WAY tickets in the named of the stolen passports were issues by a travel agency in Pattaya.

[Samaaw]

Just read that 2 ONE-WAY tickets in the named of the stolen passports were issues by a travel agency in Pattaya.

yes it was on channel news asia yesterday - two consecutive ticket numbers also. So why have the Malaysian Authorities not yet published the photos of these passport holders yet??!!

Why has THAIVISA not yet zoned in on this news - like contact the travel agency or wherever the tickets were bought, in Pattaya - that is what any good news agency would do !!

[Jimjim]

Also as the passports were stolen in Thailand (Phuket) - why not have more emphasis on the Thai side of this news... like "channel news asia" even reported that the airtickets of the two false passport holders, were bought in Pattaya and are consecutive numbers !!

Thaivisa news reports need to be more accurate and give more information as well as follow up on stories !

They have already focused on the Thai story, in another thread.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/709672-missing-plane-highlights-phukets-stolen-passport-trade/

It seems like you don't understand that not everything about the same story will be in the same thread. They usually post new news articles in different threads. There are a few different threads right now about this news story, with different articles posted.

Thaivisa news is mostly a news aggregator, meaning they very rarely write their own news stories and just post links and news from other news sites.

[realenglish1]

This is a guess but with reason. If it where a terrorist plot then I think we would already know. Terrorists want everyone to know what they are doing when they do it not just guess, Either with spectacular crashes or hostage taking. There is no sign of either . I am going to guess mechanical problems led to this. Structural failure.We will see Eventually they will find the plane

[Jimjim]

Just read that 2 ONE-WAY tickets in the named of the stolen passports were issues by a travel agency in Pattaya.

yes it was on channel news asia yesterday - two consecutive ticket numbers also. So why have the Malaysian Authorities not yet published the photos of these passport holders yet??!!

Why has THAIVISA not yet zoned in on this news - like contact the travel agency or wherever the tickets were bought, in Pattaya - that is what any good news agency would do !!

I wouldn't call Thaivisa a "news agency." It's mainly a forum that posts news from other sources. They are not doing the reporting, 99.9% of the time.

[LALes]

I discounted the terrorist angle until I learned that the plane was headed for Beijing. China has its hands full with strong discontent

among Uighur people in the far west province of Xingiang. The knife attacks in Kunming last week were radical Uighurs.

In basic terms, its China vs. Uighurs. Buddhist vs. Muslim again. Uighurs are fighting mad about having been made a minority in

their own land by the Chinese over the last 25 years. Han Chinese have been force fed into the province to eliminate Uighur opposition

to any Chinese directive. Now, in any election in Xingiang, Chinese prevail "legitimately".

This has been brewing for a long time and is about to boil over.

[Traveller45]

I discounted the terrorist angle until I learned that the plane was headed for Beijing. China has its hands full with strong discontent

among Uighur people in the far west province of Xingiang. The knife attacks in Kunming last week were radical Uighurs.

In basic terms, its China vs. Uighurs. Buddhist vs. Muslim again. Uighurs are fighting mad about having been made a minority in

their own land by the Chinese over the last 25 years. Han Chinese have been force fed into the province to eliminate Uighur opposition

to any Chinese directive. Now, in any election in Xingiang, Chinese prevail "legitimately".

This has been brewing for a long time and is about to boil over.

On one hand, if it were terrorists, we would have a revendication now. On the other, why would Uighurs steal an Austrian and Italian passport to use them? Are people blind?

[animatic]

Time to check all pictures on the passports of the passenger’s and compare with the CCTV and see who not fit in.

Then publish the pictures in media and find out the name of the 2 ghosts.

After that I think we can have an idea if they are false immigrants or terrorists

The Malaysian Authorities are playing this down BIG TIME

Well the lawsuits that will come will be much more massive and a hit to national pride and tourism,

of there is obvious negligence involved. So play it down as much a possible; face and cash must be saved.

[MaxYakov]

Malaysia also has to clean up their act !! If this is terrorism then they need to answer ALOT of questions!!

In the past -

Bali Bombings - Malaysian National

Jakarta Ritz Carton Bombing - Malaysian National

Asia Tiimes article linked by MrWorldwide on a related TV thread:

Asia Times "Malaysai's forgotten, forgiven 9/11 history" article link

[LALes]

I discounted the terrorist angle until I learned that the plane was headed for Beijing. China has its hands full with strong discontent

among Uighur people in the far west province of Xingiang. The knife attacks in Kunming last week were radical Uighurs.

In basic terms, its China vs. Uighurs. Buddhist vs. Muslim again. Uighurs are fighting mad about having been made a minority in

their own land by the Chinese over the last 25 years. Han Chinese have been force fed into the province to eliminate Uighur opposition

to any Chinese directive. Now, in any election in Xingiang, Chinese prevail "legitimately".

This has been brewing for a long time and is about to boil over.

On one hand, if it were terrorists, we would have a revendication now. On the other, why would Uighurs steal an Austrian and Italian passport to use them? Are people blind?

I don't think they care what country the passport is from. That's not the point. They just need any passport to get on the plane.

I'm sure they weren't the ones who stole the passports, either. They were probably obtained through an underground network.

Since no one has claimed responsibility, this is pure speculation now.

Edited March 10, 2014 by LALes

[prvtdetdave]

THAIVISA is not a news agency. It only repeats news for forum discussion.

[neverdie]

THAIVISA is not a news agency. It only repeats news for forum discussion.

Exactly.

Webfact does an outstanding job with his efforts in the news, often most of it goes unrecognised by people here.

At least give the fella the occasional 'like' he does a good job !

GOOD ON YOU WEBFACT.

[PepperMe]

Seeing as 80% of all the posts on this thread are speculative, here is one for you.

Has anyone stopped to think about the possibility that these two people on the plane were Thais?

Southern insurgents attempting a 9/11 style hijacking with an attempted diversion of the plane possibly to BKK?

At the moment, everything and anything is a possibility.

Not saying that they would have flown into a building there, but could well want to hold the passengers and plane hostage on Thai soil to bring global attention to the southern problems and add pressure on the government when they are at their weakest ever time with no effective PM, and everyone knows that the Thai authorities would be far too inept to control the situation should a hijacked passenger aircraft be sat on the tarmac at Swampy airport.

A Malaysian/Chinese flight would be perfect because of the ties and pressure the Thai government would have put on them from respective countries.

This could explain the sudden change in direction, and obviously their plans went horribly wrong and were forced to detonate an explosive device and become martyrs instead.

It is just as plausible as any other suggestion based on the fact that none of us know anything yet, and if these two people actually turn out to be Thais from the south, then I predict this direction is what all the speculation is going to take.

[sonar6ca]

Malaysia, Thailand, and all the Asian countries are not interested concerning the security. The life is very cheap here.

Yes life is very cheap here; I guess you are one of those experts that just landed a few weeks ago, thanks for your input, very educational.

[changnaam]

If they have been saving up stolen passports for 3 years imagine how many have been collected?

western

ASEAN

Wider Asian

All easily available in Phuket.

Could be in the 100's with the ability to move around the region without the need for a visa.

[ZAKY]

We agree that anything could happened to that plane so that the pilot was cut-off completely with communication but what happened to the beacon? It is completely independant to the aircraft power?

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[Guest]

If they have been saving up stolen passports for 3 years imagine how many have been collected?

western

ASEAN

Wider Asian

All easily available in Phuket.

Could be in the 100's with the ability to move around the region without the need for a visa.

There are plenty of passports avaialable.

More than 1 billion times last year, travelers boarded planes without their passports being checked against Interpol's database of 40 million stolen or lost travel documents, the Lyon-based police body said. Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said in a statement Sunday that it has long asked why countries would "wait for a tragedy to put prudent security measures in place at borders and boarding gates."

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/interpol-database-checked-pre-malaysia-flight-22837971

[blazes]

Time to check all pictures on the passports of the passenger’s and compare with the CCTV and see who not fit in.

Then publish the pictures in media and find out the name of the 2 ghosts.

After that I think we can have an idea if they are false immigrants or terrorists

Who would be desperate enough to want to be a "false immigrant" to China?

[laobali]

Just read that 2 ONE-WAY tickets in the named of the stolen passports were issues by a travel agency in Pattaya.

yes it was on channel news asia yesterday - two consecutive ticket numbers also. So why have the Malaysian Authorities not yet published the photos of these passport holders yet??!!

Why has THAIVISA not yet zoned in on this news - like contact the travel agency or wherever the tickets were bought, in Pattaya - that is what any good news agency would do !!

Thaivisa is not a news agency; it provides news articles from other sources for members to supplement and amplify with comments and opinions. Compared to CNN and to a lesser degree BBC, I have seen more information and updates right here in the past couple of days than anywhere else. And the Malaysian government (including its national airline) are staying tight-lipped for some very good reasons. Hopefully all will be revealed in due course, and it won't be good.