from CNN: The Italian man whose passport was allegedly used, Luigi Maraldi, contacted the Italian consulate in Phuket, Thailand, on Saturday, after receiving a call from his parents, Italian Consul Franco Cavaliere told CNN on Sunday.

Maraldi is staying on Phuket Island as a tourist, and his passport disappeared in July 2013, Cavaliere said. Maraldi told Reuters he got a new passport after his old one was stolen.

i think this stolen passport thing is a read herring. i think the 2 people traveling on stolen passports were simply trying to get into Europe without visas and just happened to end up, by incredible bad luck, on a probably downed plane.

if someone was planning to hijack or blow up a plane, why travel on a stolen passport? its far too easy to get caught at passport control whereas using your real passport would be no problem, especially if you didn't plan to survive the trip.

just my $0.02 worth. are we allowed to discuss this plane on here?

Simple. Because their real names may have been on a watch list.

Idiot. Now his new passport number can be copied!

 

Idiot. Now his new passport number can be copied!

 

What?

Running in the news section here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/709672-missing-plane-highlights-phukets-stolen-passport-trade/page-4?p=7542556#entry7542556