Malaysian Airlines’ Flight MH370 disappeared last night with over 250 people on board. It seems to have crashed over the southern coast of Vietnam. It had been headed from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Obviously, this is a terrible tragedy that is so far unexplained. The plane did not issue any distress calls. However, at least two passengers on the manifest were not actually on the plane, both of whom had had their passports stolen in recent years while staying in Thailand.
Meanwhile, questions surfaced about the identities of two of the passengers on board after evidence emerged that they could have been traveling with stolen passports.
Italian media had initially listed Luigi Maraldi among the passengers. But the 37-year-old reportedly phoned his parents on Saturday to say he was safe in Thailand. His passport had been stolen there last year, and he was later issued with new documents.
“One hypothesis therefore is that he was listed because someone boarded the plane using his stolen passport,” the Corriere della Serra reported.
Similarly, Austrian media reported that an Austrian citizen had been listed as among the passengers but had subsequently been found to be safe. His passport had been stolen in Thailand two years before, the Austrian foreign ministry said.
I don’t know how common it is for people to use stolen passports for air travel. With the watch lists, some people may do it simply to get around. But it is certainly suspicious.
It may take a long time to find the wreckage. It took two years to locate Air France’s Flight 447 after it crashed in Brazilian waters in 2009.
My condolences to the bereaved.
Gulf of Thailand is an ocean shelf with average depth of 45m and max. 80m. In South China Sea, ocean depth reaches 2,900m (8,900ft) and would make recovery quite difficult as was experienced with Air France crash in the Atlantic Ocean.
See map of Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea.
With that shallow depth our spy satellites could locate the wreckage. In the 1970’s they could detect submerged submarines in excess of a thousand feet.
I don’t know who has access, DIA? ONI? (still exists?), DIA? some other alphabet soup?
As you say, there are lots of reasons someone might fly on a stolen passport, including being a common criminal who just wants to get around. However, for the segment of the population for whom fear is porn, it’s likely to soon be proven fact that the loss of this airliner was due to an act of terrorism.
True. All the reported facts so far can be explained by a massive electrical failure.
If we knew that false passports were used on plane flights as rarely as commercial airplanes disappearing at 35,000 feet, speculations would be appropriate at this time.
There is conflicting information about when, where, and what communications ceased from this flight. Based on preliminary information James Fallows reported that the plane stopped transponding an hour into the flight. Other reports are that communications were lost two hours in to the flight.
Agree with Marie, and I really, really, really have to caution against written speculation based on limited evidence.
Later reports were that plane was at cruising altitude; that there is no GPS in that area and locators are using the antiquated radio frequency; the twin oil slicks are speculated to be over the wreckage but no on site confirmation as yet.
It seems strange that both passports were stolen in Thailand; that an older passport (1 & 2 years respectively) wouldn’t be as easy to re use because of the chance of their being reported stolen/lost and the authorities having them flagged.
Then again, how many Austrians and Italians who would fit the passport description be flying out of Malaysia?
The comment was also made that the plane not only went radio silent but the privacy line that the pilots can use wasn’t in use. Whatever happened it would seem sudden and powerful. Terrible tragedy.
The McKee Team. This is just a reminder of plane crashes past.
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○ Oil slicks found at sea in search for Malaysia jet
○ Oil spills on sea surface diversity from petrol, kerosene and diesel oil plus photo
In last communication, the pilot of another plane heard a lot of static. Losing signal, responder could have been turned off, US spy satellites should be able to provide data. The possibility of hijackers or a terror strike cannot be excluded.
Twitter account #MH370.
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○ Person stolen passport identified; Iranian 19 years-old seeking asylum in Sweden