Terror probe over missing Malaysia Airlines jet

[OMGImInPattaya]

Thai government should actually do something about this culture of taking foreigners passport to rent a $500 motorbike its ridiculous. But we all know nothing will be done. In the 20 years of going to Thailand and renting MB's I have never lost my passport its best to sus out the person ask them if it will be locked up etc its all you can do. I wouldn't give anything to those cu*** on beach road try other smaller places preferably if your guest house rents them out its better than someone on the street.

I've rented motos dozens of time in Pattaya, Phuket, Samui, and Tao, and never once gave them my passport. Most didnt request it and if they did i said no. If they want a copy fine but never my passport.

[coma]

Post 9/11 it would be almost impossible for someone to gain access to the cockpit. And even if after some time persisting at, they eventually do get in. That surely would have been enough time for the crew to send out a distress call , dump fuel etc etc. Those two "oil slicks " may well have been formed from a fuel dump at sea if at a a lower altitude. Lots of weird $hit about this one.

[vanillalatte]

many people is worrying now and wondering why two possible terrorists can be able to get in a plane with stolen passports

I just want to remain to everybody that the terrorists don´t need stolen passports to crash an airplane.

There are many young, blind, brainwashed, fanatic with clean delictive record, who are very proud for doing it and contribute this way to their cause.

There is no way to stop this kind of fanatism.

Otherwise I am not going to say that we must do nothing. We have to try it by other possible ways, more control it´s the only way.

Fanatics you are talking about come from places like - Afganistan,Nigeria,Somalia - they need visa everywhere and routinely they are refused;so they use dodgy passports instead.

[vanillalatte]

MISSING MAS

KL airport's security meets international standards: Official

Kuala Lumpur International Airport's security meets strict international standards, a Malaysian official said on Monday amid reports of security lapses at the airport.

....

-- The Nation 2014-03-10

Standarts are high but people there?mostly - not competent."Pribunis" complex,if you know what I mean.

[draftvader]

Recent post on pprune...

<<<

The possibility that the transponder was switched off deliberately has been raised. The only reason for doing this would be to conceal where the aircraft is going next.

Either the flight crew or others who overpowered them are the only two agents who could do this.

>>>

doubtful that the transponder has an on/off switch so the pilot could hide where the plane is really at

or choose to conceal its location at will ,what airline would permit such a liability ?

if they were would that "feature " not be disabled by now ?

Surely there MUST always be a way to de-power them...what if they start to smoke/fire? Need to ask the Q on the pp site.

I can see a very viable reason why there is an over-ride. If something fails in flight and somehow starts affecting more vital systems it is important that there is a method to reset that device. I can easily see the engineers putting such a fail-safe in place. The protection for the system is very likely as simple as the pilots not knowing the sequence and it, theoretically, being protected from public domain. In an emergency the sequence could be transmitted to the crew and the sequence altered at the next engineering opportunity.

Back-doors in security systems are not just left there by accident. There has to be a way to regain control of a system once it is out of your control.

[hawker9000]

It strikes me as absolutely incredible that the immigration officers who checked these 2 particular passports at KUL departures were apparently unable to determine for some reason or other that they were included in the Interpol database of lost or stolen travel documents

(http://www.interpol.int/INTERPOL-expertise/Databases) through swiping the data pages through their scanners, as seems to be the standard practice worldwide nowadays.

That said, every database is, of course, only as useful as the information fed into it. Had neither passport yet been entered into the Interpol database by immigration officials here in Thailand where they had been stolen, this strikes me as utterly inexcusable, particularly in the case of the passport stolen 18 months ago. Clearly immigration officials worldwide (and not just here in Thailand) may need to sharpen up their act to ensure that stolen passports are now recorded on the Interpol database with the absolute minimum delay.

AFAIK airline check-in staff don’t have access to scanners as used by immigration officers, so it would be all but impossible for them to determine on the basis of a cursory visual inspection whether or not a particular passport was stolen. However, I do believe there now to be a strong case for airline check-in staff also to be provided with these scanners, in order to reassure the travelling public on a belt-and-braces basis.

Finally, it has struck me for some time as highly ironic in the post 9/11 era that there are no longer any immigration passport checks at UK or USA airport departures, seemingly for purely economic reasons! Hopefully these days are now numbered following this tragic incident.

Great. Just what we need. More security lines. ...which apparently didn't work at KL...

'Not sure I understand how a stolen passport blows up an airplane. At most it gets someone aboard who's actually on a no-fly list, but they still have to have the means to hijack or destroy the aircraft. Don't we have scanners, pat-downs, x-ray machines, and carry-on searches for that? If they're doing no good, then what's the point of putting everybody through it? 'Want to trade all that in on a passport machine-scan or a biometric scan - I'm ok with that. But how far is this going to go! I know - from now on everybody has to submit to a clearance-style background check to get on a "white list". Lots of forms to fill out, a few hundred dollars in fees, a lead-time of maybe six months, and they'll come interview your family, employer, neighbors, etc. Maybe a lie-detector test. How's that sound?

I'm ranting because I just know the CBP/TSA "Team" is going to make this as painful and as intrusive and as expensive as humanly possible...

[Exsexyman]

Well, if there does turn out to be a terrorist connection - or even if there doesn't - use of two passports reported as lost/stolen seven months and two years ago raises red flags, not only about the failure of security personnel and systems to connect the dots, but about the persistence of airport authorities, such as those in the US, in infringing personal liberties with the introduction of the likes of body scanners, whilst demonstrating incomparable incompetence - a similar incident has already occurred in the US - in addressing the most basic of security checks.

Apparently when a passport is reported lost or stolen the details are automatically entered into the Interpol data base. But only law enforcement agencies are allowed to check the data base, Interpol have failed to allow airlines to use it. Border control and immigration can check but they rarely bother. Security advisers state that there are MILLIONS of illicit passports in circulation, some 270,000 passports belonging to Britons alone are lost or stolen every year. Interpol stated on Sunday that more than a BILLION air journeys were taken last year without the passenger's details being checked against a stolen passport data base.

This surely takes complacency to new depths.

Source : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-incident-exposes-alarming-flaw-in-airline-security-9180189.html

Edited March 10, 2014 by Exsexyman

[hawker9000]

A quarter-million passports lost - per year - and that's just the British!! I had no idea. Amazing. 'Prompted me to do some googling. I don't understand the linkage rules here, but if you google something like "how many passports lost" you'll see a USA Today article that's quite illuminating. Apparently passports are actually a very weak link in the big travel security picture. At best. The US makes the most use of the Interpol database (250 million checks annually; the UK about half that). The article, quoting a former Clinton administration official, says that had the Malaysian Air flight been headed for the US, "the passenger manifest would have been checked before takeoff" (article contains more details on what that means...).

'Sounds like fixing the worldwide stolen & faked passport problem is not nearly as simple as it sounds.

[speedtripler]

passports are not easily altered ,i have a relatively old one from 8 years ago and it would be damn near impossible to change the pic

its engraved into solid plastic using a laser or something similar and has loads of security features as well as the biodata chip embedded

hard to see how the could use modern european passports and just switch the pictures although i am aware that some 3rd world counties still use a

photograph laminated onto a piece of paper and this could probably be altered easily but even then its probably time consuming to remove the old laminate

without damaging the underlying document ,change the pic and relaminate .........

[kannot]

Nice to know Thailand played its part here.................stolen passports.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Here's the link to the Channel NewsAsia video report that talks about the tickets associated with the two stolen passports having been bought in Pattaya and having consecutive numbers.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/specialreports/mh370/videos/malaysia-s-aviation-chief/1027360.html

The video includes footage of the Italian guy appearing with what looks to be Thai Immigration officers, showing off his current passport.

The Channel NewsAsia report also talks about the users of the two passports having had an Asian appearance.

AFAIK, at this point on Monday night, still no confirmed location of the airplane or any wreckage associated with it.

It seems there's a lot more information that's NOT being provided by authorities than is being provided.

For example, the aircraft had an automated information broadcasting system onboard. The Malaysian Air CEO confirmed the plane has/had such a system, but apparently wasn't willing to say anything about what information authorities had received from that system.

The missing Boeing 777-200ER was also equipped with ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System), a system which sends short messages to ground controllers -- either automatically or manually depending on the airline.

"If Malaysia Airlines does have these messages, that would be very useful" to determine events before it lost contact, Soejatman said.

Malaysia Airlines' chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya confirmed to reporters at a press conference late Monday that the missing aircraft was equipped with ACARS, but did not provide any further details.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/specialreports/mh370/news/q-a-what-happened-to/1027838.html

[oldsailor35]

From my frequent international flights, on checking through immigration, my passport is handed over and i am told to stand before a camera with my hat off. If this was done at KL, then it should be easy to get the photographs of the ones who presented the said passport. Why are the Malaysian immigration dept., finding this simple action so difficult.

[oldsailor35]

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

Gadaffi did'nt tell the world when they did the Lockerbie bombing, it took ages of painstaking investigation. So i would'nt hold your breath on this one.

[oldsailor35]

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.

Khun Suthep has been acting a bit weird over the last 3 months.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I should have mentioned, there's a broader discussion of the stolen passports issue in this related thread:

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

Stolen out of Phuket...and then used much later to buy airline tickets in Pattaya. Thailand, it seems, is in the thick of this one.

[oldsailor35]

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

Hmmm... if that's the case, it raises a lot of red flags for more than just the obvious reasons. If you're flying to China you either have to be transiting through or you need a visa. If you have a one way ticket, you can't get a tourist visa (although a return or onward flight could be booked through another airline). So, that begs the question, were there onward flights for these passengers? They would have had to show proof of another flight before they could board the plane in Malaysia. Or, did they have a Chinese visa? And if they did, how did they get visas with stolen passports?

Officials must know the answers to these questions....but we haven't heard a thing about it.

Yes we have ! Both the "ghost" passengers were routed on to seperate European destinations.

[Basil B]

Hopefully one day we will have virtual documents that the data comes from a database, so instead of a full passport, you have an ID card which is a key that pulls up the photo plus all the other data from your countries national database.

[oldsailor35]

OK guys, terrorism or fatal technical problem BUT where is this aircraft ???

If it was dived to the shore could be found already the signal of emergency radio-marker.

If it was crashed to the water must to be many parts on the surface with kerosine.

If it was burst in the air also must to be many many parts in a huge place.

So, where is it?

RIP for passengers and crew they are dead already. Hope they got very quick die.

How long would human survival be from a 35000ft release. ?

[oldsailor35]

MISSING MAS

KL airport's security meets international standards: Official

Kuala Lumpur International Airport's security meets strict international standards, a Malaysian official said on Monday amid reports of security lapses at the airport.

Pressed for answers on how two men with Asian features could have boarded the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines MH370 with European passports, Department of Civil Aviation director general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said he was waiting for a report by security investigators on this matter.

Malaysia’s Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on Sunday said the two passengers who used stolen European passports were of Asian appearance, criticising border officials who let them through.

"I am still perturbed. Can’t these immigration officials think? Italian and Austrian but with Asian faces," he was quoted by state news agency Bernama as saying late on Sunday.

Azharuddin declined to comment on whether there is heightened security in Malaysia’s airport but maintained that security had been strict.

"We have a national civil aviation security programme we have to comply with. As DCA, we have done our audits on KLIA, following standards by transport security administration of the US and Australia," said Azharuddin.

On the possibility of a hijack, he said: "This is not discounted. We’re looking at every aspect of what could have happened to the aircraft."

Malaysia Airlines had removed all unaccompanied baggage on flight MH370 before it took off on Saturday morning, adhering to international aviation protocols, he said.

"Every check-in baggage has a tag on the boarding pass. This was done to make sure the correct bags were removed from the aircraft," he told a press conference as the search for the missing plane entered its third day.

He said reports that Vietnamese searchers found a part that looks like the inner part of an aircraft door have not been officially verified by the Vietnamese government.

He said the search teams had also dispatched sea craft to investigate debris spotted by air crews on Sunday.

"Parts that look like an airplane’s tail but when we dispatched craft to the area made known to us, it was logs tied together that look like pontoons," Azharuddin said.

He said searches were also still being carried out in the Strait of Malacca on the possibility of the aircraft making an air turn back after taking off from KLIA.

Oil samples from the South China Sea recovered by Malaysian Maritime Agency Agency were also being studied by the Chemistry Department, with no time given on when the analyses would be finished.

Search operations are still ongoing and currently involves 34 aircraft, 40 ships, and more than 100 men in operations that has passed 60 hours now.

Air search is being done from 7am to 7pm daily while sea-borne searches are conducted round the clock.

Flight MH370 to Beijng lost contact with Subang Air Traffic Control 50 minutes after departing KLIA at 12.41am on Saturday.

It was due to land in Beijing at 6.30am, and had enough fuel to fly till 8.30am. The plane did not issue a distress signal nor was there bad weather when it disappeared.

The flight was carrying a total number of 239 people - comprising 227 passengers (including 2 infants) and 12 crew members.

Passengers from 14 nations and Taiwan were on board, the majority being Chinese nationals and Malaysians. No Singaporean was on board. Flight MH370 was operated on a Boeing 777-200 aircraft, a codeshare with China Southern Airlines.

Malaysia said the search would go on round the clock until a decision is made to call it off. On Chinese family members wishing to come to Kuala Lumpur to be closer to investigations, MAS CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said up to five next of kin of each passenger will be flown in and put up in KL hotels.

The first of the families from China have already arrived in KL on Monday morning. Local Malaysian families are being housed in the Everly Hotel in Putrajaya, half an hour from KLIA.

-- The Nation 2014-03-10

So the minister says that there was unaccompanied baggage on loaded on flight MH370, as they took it off. Maybe they missed some ?

[speedtripler]

OK guys, terrorism or fatal technical problem BUT where is this aircraft ???

If it was dived to the shore could be found already the signal of emergency radio-marker.

If it was crashed to the water must to be many parts on the surface with kerosine.

If it was burst in the air also must to be many many parts in a huge place.

So, where is it?

RIP for passengers and crew they are dead already. Hope they got very quick die.

How long would human survival be from a 35000ft release. ?

without a parachute ,not long

you cant jump out at 35,000ft anyway ,even if everyone had a parachute

[oldsailor35]

Thai government should actually do something about this culture of taking foreigners passport to rent a $500 motorbike its ridiculous. But we all know nothing will be done. In the 20 years of going to Thailand and renting MB's I have never lost my passport its best to sus out the person ask them if it will be locked up etc its all you can do. I wouldn't give anything to those ***** on beach road try other smaller places preferably if your guest house rents them out its better than someone on the street.

If you are British, you should never never give your passport to another ! The PP does not belong to you, it belongs to the crown. Anyone, wherever they come from, is an idiot to give their PP to another. You are supposed to carry your PP at all times.....................Get wise !

[oldsailor35]

OK guys, terrorism or fatal technical problem BUT where is this aircraft ???

If it was dived to the shore could be found already the signal of emergency radio-marker.

If it was crashed to the water must to be many parts on the surface with kerosine.

If it was burst in the air also must to be many many parts in a huge place.

So, where is it?

RIP for passengers and crew they are dead already. Hope they got very quick die.

How long would human survival be from a 35000ft release. ?

without a parachute ,not long

you cant jump out at 35,000ft anyway ,even if everyone had a parachute

No No NO ! i am looking for an intelligent answer.........silly boy !

[oldsailor35]

Thai government should actually do something about this culture of taking foreigners passport to rent a $500 motorbike its ridiculous. But we all know nothing will be done. In the 20 years of going to Thailand and renting MB's I have never lost my passport its best to sus out the person ask them if it will be locked up etc its all you can do. I wouldn't give anything to those cu*** on beach road try other smaller places preferably if your guest house rents them out its better than someone on the street.

nobody forces you to rent these bikes

when i go to pattaya i usually rent a ducatti

its a 400,000 thb bike and if i crash it i get the bill

if i KNOWINGLY enter such a deal i dont get to complain later

i could have walked around with passport in pocket but i CHOSE not to

the company have no comeback if if i crash that 400k bike into a 2 million thb car

and insurance pays 60% if even so all they can do is restrict my leaving thailand

by not having a passport until i honour my part of the deal and pay the bill if a crash happens

I would "never" give my passport to anybody. If they demand it, i offer a photo copy. That is sufficient, they can take that to police to get me stopped . If that is not good enough .........Too bloody bad, no deal. Only a careless fool hands over his/her PP to unknowns.

[oldsailor35]

It strikes me as absolutely incredible that the immigration officers who checked these 2 particular passports at KUL departures were apparently unable to determine for some reason or other that they were included in the Interpol database of lost or stolen travel documents

(http://www.interpol.int/INTERPOL-expertise/Databases) through swiping the data pages through their scanners, as seems to be the standard practice worldwide nowadays.

That said, every database is, of course, only as useful as the information fed into it. Had neither passport yet been entered into the Interpol database by immigration officials here in Thailand where they had been stolen, this strikes me as utterly inexcusable, particularly in the case of the passport stolen 18 months ago. Clearly immigration officials worldwide (and not just here in Thailand) may need to sharpen up their act to ensure that stolen passports are now recorded on the Interpol database with the absolute minimum delay.

AFAIK airline check-in staff don’t have access to scanners as used by immigration officers, so it would be all but impossible for them to determine on the basis of a cursory visual inspection whether or not a particular passport was stolen. However, I do believe there now to be a strong case for airline check-in staff also to be provided with these scanners, in order to reassure the travelling public on a belt-and-braces basis.

Finally, it has struck me for some time as highly ironic in the post 9/11 era that there are no longer any immigration passport checks at UK or USA airport departures, seemingly for purely economic reasons! Hopefully these days are now numbered following this tragic incident.

You have to experience some of those Burkha wearing, pie faced birds at KL immigration, i often wonder if they are hypnotised to look as though they can actually read !

[oldsailor35]

it is a possibility it was hijacked and heading back to kuala lumpa and they shot it down fearing a 9/11 style attack

on the capital city but malaysia are saying very little although some reports say it made a u-turn and started to come

back

Oh yes i can clearly see that, and the flight crew would remain silent and say nothing ?

[speedtripler]

Thai government should actually do something about this culture of taking foreigners passport to rent a $500 motorbike its ridiculous. But we all know nothing will be done. In the 20 years of going to Thailand and renting MB's I have never lost my passport its best to sus out the person ask them if it will be locked up etc its all you can do. I wouldn't give anything to those cu*** on beach road try other smaller places preferably if your guest house rents them out its better than someone on the street.

nobody forces you to rent these bikes

when i go to pattaya i usually rent a ducatti

its a 400,000 thb bike and if i crash it i get the bill

if i KNOWINGLY enter such a deal i dont get to complain later

i could have walked around with passport in pocket but i CHOSE not to

the company have no comeback if if i crash that 400k bike into a 2 million thb car

and insurance pays 60% if even so all they can do is restrict my leaving thailand

by not having a passport until i honour my part of the deal and pay the bill if a crash happens

I would "never" give my passport to anybody. If they demand it, i offer a photo copy. That is sufficient, they can take that to police to get me stopped . If that is not good enough .........Too bloody bad, no deal. Only a careless fool hands over his/her PP to unknowns.

leaving them a photocopy doesnt prevent you skiping into cambodia or failing to return the vehicle

or paying if you total it

keeping your passport is more effective for the companys perspective

[speedtripler]

OK guys, terrorism or fatal technical problem BUT where is this aircraft ???

If it was dived to the shore could be found already the signal of emergency radio-marker.

If it was crashed to the water must to be many parts on the surface with kerosine.

If it was burst in the air also must to be many many parts in a huge place.

So, where is it?

RIP for passengers and crew they are dead already. Hope they got very quick die.

How long would human survival be from a 35000ft release. ?

without a parachute ,not long

you cant jump out at 35,000ft anyway ,even if everyone had a parachute

No No NO ! i am looking for an intelligent answer.........silly boy !

not so silly actually ,even the SAS experts need to be well prepared in advance for a jump like that and they are the best in the world

Health risks

All types of parachuting technique are dangerous, but HALO/HAHO carry special risks. At high altitudes (greater than 22,000 feet [6,700 m]), the partial pressure of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere is low. Oxygen is required for human respiration and lack of pressure can lead to hypoxia. Also, rapid ascent in the jump aircraft without all nitrogen flushed from the bloodstream can lead to decompression sickness (also known as caisson disease or "the bends").

A typical HALO exercise will require a pre-breathing period (30–45 minutes) prior to jump where the jumper breathes 100% oxygen in order to flush nitrogen from their bloodstream. Also, a HALO jumper will employ an oxygen bottle during the jump. Danger can come from medical conditions affecting the jumper. For example, cigarette smoking, alcohol and drug use (including histamine antagonists, sedatives, and analgesics), anemia, carbon monoxide, fatigue and anxiety can all lead to a jumper being more susceptible to hypoxia. In addition, problems with the oxygen bottle and during the changeover from the pre-breather to the oxygen bottle can result in the return of nitrogen to the jumper's bloodstream and, therefore, an increased likelihood of decompression sickness. Theoretically, a single breath of atmospheric air may elevate the jumper's arterial nitrogen level to dangerous levels. A jumper suffering from hypoxia may lose consciousness and therefore be unable to open his parachute. A jumper suffering from decompression sickness may die or become permanently disabled from nitrogen bubbles in the bloodstream, which causes inflammation of joints.

Another risk is from the low ambient temperatures prevalent at higher altitudes. At an altitude of 35,000 feet, the jumper faces temperatures of –45 °C (–50 °F), and can experience frostbite. However, HALO jumpers generally wear polypropylene knit undergarments and other warm clothing to prevent this.

HALO carries the additional risk that if the parachute fails to deploy or lines become tangled, there is less time to resort to the reserve (back-up parachute) or untangle the lines, though the reserve is the best option if this were to occur.

Typical equipment

[speedtripler]

it is a possibility it was hijacked and heading back to kuala lumpa and they shot it down fearing a 9/11 style attack

on the capital city but malaysia are saying very little although some reports say it made a u-turn and started to come

back

Oh yes i can clearly see that, and the flight crew would remain silent and say nothing ?

if they had guns to their heads ,maybe ?

[NeverSure]

OK guys, terrorism or fatal technical problem BUT where is this aircraft ???

If it was dived to the shore could be found already the signal of emergency radio-marker.

If it was crashed to the water must to be many parts on the surface with kerosine.

If it was burst in the air also must to be many many parts in a huge place.

So, where is it?

RIP for passengers and crew they are dead already. Hope they got very quick die.

How long would human survival be from a 35000ft release. ?

I've posted this in another thread, but if it was what is called "explosive decompression" which can come from explosives or catastrophic airframe failure, consciousness would last at the most 10 seconds and death would occur in less than a minute. The air is sucked out of the lungs and ears because the body decompresses too. The 10 seconds of consciousness might be semi-conscious. Many people would be hit by flying debris. The air temperature at 35,000 hitting at 500 mph would quickly freeze the bodies.

All thoughts of parachutes or of people aware they are falling aren't possible.

[takkatan in the land]

Thai government should actually do something about this culture of taking foreigners passport to rent a $500 motorbike its ridiculous. But we all know nothing will be done. In the 20 years of going to Thailand and renting MB's I have never lost my passport its best to sus out the person ask them if it will be locked up etc its all you can do. I wouldn't give anything to those cu*** on beach road try other smaller places preferably if your guest house rents them out its better than someone on the street.

I've rented motos dozens of time in Pattaya, Phuket, Samui, and Tao, and never once gave them my passport. Most didnt request it and if they did i said no. If they want a copy fine but never my passport.

try to rent a car