Two victims of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 which disappeared and crashed on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing were carrying passports stolen in Thailand.
The families of Luigi Maraldi, 27, an Italian, and Austrian Christian Kozel, 30, have confirmed that these two men are alive and well
‘Luigi called us early this morning to reassure us he was fine, but we didn’t know about the accident,’ Walter Maraldi, his father told NBC News. ‘Thank God he heard about it before us.’
Maraldi, a resident of Phuket reported his passport stolen last August 1st to authorities, Phuketwan reported. He claimed it was stolen from a car rental company.
Kozel also reported his passport stolen on Phuket several months before.
Malaysian Insider is also reporting that two other foreigners may also have been travelling under false passports, but has not named them or their nationality. CCT footage at Immigration Control and Check-in desks is being studied.
Flight MH370 a Boeng 777 with 227 passengers and 12 crew dropped off the radar over the Gulf of Thailand and some 120 miles from the Vietnamese Coast.
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| Oil spill – Pic: Thanh Nien |
Large oil slicks six and nine miles long have been spotted in the area by Vietnamese Air Force pilots in and Chinese and Vietnamese Naval ships have raced to the scene.
There is no reason at this stage to suspect a terrorist attack. But little information is known or has been released as to the possible causes of the crash.
I always thought stolen passports were cancelled…apparently not and in this day and age ?
And…stolen in Thailand…yet used in Malaysia. Presume they had been used to exit Thailand and enter Malaysia and who knows where else since going missing.
I just read a related news story this morning (can't remember where) saying that although Interpol maintain a list of lost/stolen passports which is freely accessible by governments, airlines & some others, very few governments make use of it.
It did make me wonder that if few governments make use of the list they must at least contribute to it otherwise where does Interpol get the data? But that's what the story said.
Found it: http://www.malaysiasun.com/index.php/sid/220383846/scat/303b19022816233b/ht/Interpol-data-on-stolen-passports-easily-accessed
by the way….international stories like this….600k views soon….see what i mean.
I see where one of the major news outlets here is finally admitting that the fake passport holders were issued their tickets in Pattaya and paid it Thai baht.
I pray that none of the friends of this site have done a runner and had a tragic accident.
As you know very well Andrew, the use of stolen passports in the region is almost a daily event, particularly in BKK and KL. That is why there are airline liaison officers from several immigration services, representing countries to where there is pressure to migrate, posted to those airports on an almost daily basis. The battle between them and the facilitators is perpetual not least because potential illegals will pay agents up to £20,000 for them to arrange their passage.
The onward connection via Beijing to AMS is significant as a preferred route for the agents.
I think it is a red herring and it is more likely the aircraft suffered some catastrophic failure.
I see the conspiracy theorists are cranking…and I mean CRANKING it up on various forums now. Seemingly it was a CIA inspired plot to drag the Chinese into the developing situation in the Ukraine against the Ivans…..
What can't some just take it for what it is…..either a tragic accident – mechanical/ structural failure or a terrorist outrage that we all know has been coming for a long, long time especially since the bombings in Bangkok a couple of years ago?
Stolen and illegally acquired or incorrectly acquired passports are used a lot in Asia, the gamut can range from a young Indonesian girl wanting a passport which shows she is 18 to work in Hong Kong to agents in China providing a fake passport to a client (they pay for a real one, but the agent spends less getting a fake one, Chinese business ethics). Big money in passports and visas hereabouts.
Some people will travel on stolen passports due to problems with police or visa restrictions. Europeans sometimes struggle to comprehend the difficulty the ordinary person in Asia has in travelling and working and the cost of it. As passports have become more sophisticated it has become more difficult to alter one, the days of putting a new photo in with a sharp knife and laminator have almost gone.
Terrorists will 60% of the time (I don't know how Homeland Security got that stat) travel on their own passport, less chance of being stopped.
And when they arrive they may lie about their purpose of visit.
On an ordinary flight in Asia you are more likely than not to find someone with a dodgy passport or visa.
RIP those poor souls, what a nightmare way to go , black cold, spinning-falling, hope it was quick.
I too, think a terrorist attack is imminent in the region, to much oppression and slavery of the region's minority Muslims, in China, Thailand, Myanmar and now reported , north Malaysia is getting in on the Rohingya trafficking . Security in area airports is a joke, especially Phuket where planes land practically on a beach and the fuel storage is 10 meters from a public road. I've never had anything but the most cursory of screenings, even when my destination was USA.
An attack will happen, just when is the question.
However., on professional pilot forums, the consensus of those in the business is wing failure from a prior and repaired crack.
The Malaysian Sun article quotes 1 billion passengers flew without proper identity screening in 2013, so seems pretty much an everyday occurrence that one flight somewhere would have a miscreant or two aboard.