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SEPANG, Malaysia — As military aircraft and a flotilla of ships from a half-dozen nations combed the waters south of Vietnam on Sunday for signs of a jet with 239 people onboard that vanished a day earlier, the authorities here deflected troubling questions about two passengers on the flight who had used passports listed in an international database as lost or stolen.
SEPANG, Malaysia — More than 48 hours after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished, the mysteries over its fate have only multiplied.
The secretary general of Interpol, Ronald K. Noble, said Sunday that no checks had been conducted by the authorities in Malaysia or any other country about the two passports before the plane, a Boeing 777-200, left on Flight MH370, which disappeared Saturday en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The Beijing-bound plane made no distress call, officials said, and might have even turned back to Malaysia midflight before it disappeared. Despite an intensive international search in the waters along its scheduled route, there were no confirmed sightings of the plane’s wreckage. And electronic records showed the two passengers who were traveling on stolen passports bought their tickets from the same Thai travel agency.
In a forceful statement, Mr. Noble warned that “only a handful of countries” around the world routinely made such checks.
The seeming security lapse, which Interpol publicly criticized, might have had nothing to do with what happened to the jet and its 239 passengers and crew. Investigators said they were ruling nothing out, including a catastrophic mechanical failure, pilot error, or both.
“This is a situation we had hoped never to see,” he said. “For years, Interpol has asked why should countries wait for a tragedy to put prudent security measures in place at borders and boarding gates.”
But by late Sunday, the lack of answers — or even many clues — to the plane’s disappearance added to the misery of family members left behind. With Malaysian officials refusing to release many details of their investigation and sometimes presenting conflicting information, the families and friends of victims became increasingly frustrated.
On a second day of search-and-rescue operations punctuated by false and unconfirmed sightings of debris from a possible wreckage, an airline official told relatives of the passengers of Flight MH370 to “expect the worst,” and electronic records emerged linking the passengers with stolen passports to the same travel agency in Thailand.
One woman in Beijing collapsed in tears Sunday night in the hotel room where passengers’ relatives were waiting for news. “Why won’t anyone tell us anything?” she wailed.
Malaysia Airlines confirmed that the missing aircraft had been involved in a collision with another plane in 2012 at the Shanghai airport that resulted in damage to the Malaysian aircraft’s wingtip. But the airline said the wing was repaired by Boeing and declared safe to fly.
The many unknowns also frustrated international security experts attempting to determine whether security breaches might have led to tragedy.
Security and aviation experts continued to offer starkly disparate theories about what happened to the missing plane, a measure both of how unusual it was for it to disappear from radar without any distress call as well as of how little information the Malaysian authorities have released.
Ronald K. Noble, the secretary general of the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, said, “It is clearly of great concern that any passenger was able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in Interpol’s databases.”
In a series of briefings, Malaysian officials refused to answer any questions relating to what they described as “security matters.”
“This is a situation we had hoped never to see,” he said, adding that too few countries systematically use its database to screen travelers. “For years, Interpol has asked, ‘Why should countries wait for a tragedy to put prudent security measures in place at borders and boarding gates?’ ”
“We will review all security protocols and, if needed, we will enhance them,” Prime Minister Najib Razak was quoted saying in newspaper The Star.
By early Monday, the search effort had yet to confirm where the plane had gone down, even as military aircraft and a flotilla of ships from a half-dozen nations, including China, Malaysia, Vietnam and the United States, combed the waters south of Vietnam.
In China, home to a majority of those aboard the flight, there were signs of anger and frustration over Malaysia’s handling of the situation among families of the passengers. China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, appeared to flash impatience in a phone call reported on the ministry’s website.
On Sunday, Vietnamese media reported that rescuers had found a yellow object they thought might be part of the aircraft. But the news media later said it turned out to be a coral reef.
“The Malaysian Airlines flight has been missing for close to 40 hours,” he was quoted as telling his Malaysian counterpart, Anifah Haji Aman. “The Chinese government is treating this very seriously, and the Chinese people are extremely anxious.” He asked that Malaysia “constantly” provide updates on the situation.
Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the Malaysian civil aviation chief, said samples from an oil slick discovered in the waters had been collected and were being tested to determine if they had come from the plane.
Aircraft and boats from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam scoured the area where ground controllers lost contact with the plane, the maritime border between Malaysia and Vietnam. Vietnamese media reported that a yellow object that rescuers thought might be part of the aircraft turned out to be a coral reef.
The flight left the international airport in Sepang, outside Kuala Lumpur, at 12:41 a.m. on Saturday and vanished less than an hour later as it appeared to be cruising at 35,000 feet in calm weather. More details emerged Sunday about the two passengers listed on the manifest using names from an Austrian and an Italian passport reported stolen in Thailand, one in 2012 and the other in 2013. According to electronic booking records, each man bought a one-way ticket on Thursday from a travel agency in a shopping mall in the Thai beach resort of Pattaya. A woman who answered the phone at the agency said she was too busy to talk.
Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the Malaysian civil aviation chief, said samples from an oil slick discovered in the waters had been collected and were being tested to determine if it came from the plane.
Both men were scheduled to transit in Beijing and continue to Amsterdam before traveling to different cities, Frankfurt and Copenhagen, according to the records.
The flight left the international airport in Sepang, outside Kuala Lumpur, at 12:41 a.m. on Saturday and disappeared less than an hour later as it appeared to be cruising at 35,000 feet in calm weather. Speculation on the plane’s fate has ranged from a rare, catastrophic mechanical failure to something more sinister.
A senior American law enforcement official confirmed Sunday that Thai officials were investigating a “passport ring” operating on the resort island of Phuket, where both passports were stolen.
More details emerged Sunday about two passengers listed on the manifest using names from an Austrian and an Italian passport reported stolen in Thailand, one in 2012 and the other in 2013. According electronic booking records, both men purchased one-way tickets on Thursday from a travel agency in a shopping mall in the Thai beach resort of Pattaya. A woman who answered the phone at the agency said she was “too busy to talk.”
Although the official said identifying the two passengers is a top priority for investigators, he noted that false documents were also routinely used in the region by drug smugglers and swindlers.
It is unclear how the men traveled from Thailand to Malaysia to board the flight on Saturday. But they were both scheduled to transit in Beijing and continue on to Amsterdam before traveling to different cities, Frankfurt and Copenhagen, according to the records. As transit passengers they would not have been required to obtain a Chinese visa.
The official, who has received classified briefings on the global investigation, said the authorities had not ruled out terrorism in the plane’s disappearance, but there had been no public claims of responsibility or electronic intercepts of extremists discussing details of any bombing or attack.
Security experts in Asia said the use of false travel documents was a persistent problem in the region but differed on the significance of the two stolen passports to the investigation.
“We’re not seeing or hearing anyone claiming anything about this,” the official said. Security experts in Asia differed on the significance of the two stolen passports.
Xu Ke, a lecturer at the Zhejiang Police College in eastern China who studies aviation safety and hijackings and has advised the Chinese authorities, said the two men might have been illegal migrants. “There are many cases of falsified and counterfeit passports and visas for illegal migration that our public security comes across, even several cases every day,” he said.
Xu Ke, a lecturer at the Zhejiang Police College in eastern China who studies aviation safety and hijackings, said the two men might have been illegal migrants. “There are many cases of falsified and counterfeit passports and visas for illegal migration that our public security comes across, even several cases every day,” he said.
But Steve Vickers, the chief executive of a Hong Kong-based security consulting company that specializes in risk mitigation and corporate intelligence in Asia, said the presence of at least two travelers with stolen passports aboard a single jet was rare and a potential clue.
But Steve Vickers, the chief executive of a Hong Kong-based security consulting company that specializes in risk mitigation and corporate intelligence in Asia, said the presence of at least two travelers with stolen passports aboard a single jet was rare.
“It is fairly unusual to have more than one person flying on a flight with a stolen passport,” said Mr. Vickers, who publicly warned a month ago that stolen airport passes and other identity documents in Asia merited a crackdown. “The future of this investigation lies in who really checked in and what they looked like,” he added.
“It is fairly unusual to have more than one person flying on a flight with a stolen passport,” said Mr. Vickers, who publicly warned a month ago that stolen airport passes and other identity documents in Asia merited a crackdown. “The future of this investigation lies in who really checked in.”
Mr. Azharuddin said investigators were reviewing video footage of the passengers in question. “There are only two passengers on record that flew on this aircraft that had false passports,” he said. “And we have the CCTV recordings of those passengers from check-in bags to the departure point.” He declined to provide details about what investigators saw in the footage.
Mr. Azharuddin said investigators were reviewing video footage of the passengers in question. Malaysian officials also said five ticketed passengers failed to board the flight but said that their luggage was removed from the plane before it took off.
Malaysian officials also said five ticketed passengers failed to board the flight but confirmed that their luggage was removed from the plane before it took off.
Vahid Motevalli, an aviation expert at Tennessee Tech University, in Cookeville, Tenn., said that since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, verifying the identity of passengers had become fundamental.
Mr. Noble, the secretary general of the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, said it was too soon to speculate about any connection between the stolen passports and the missing plane. But, he added, “it is clearly of great concern that any passenger was able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in Interpol’s databases.”
The Interpol database of stolen passports is considered crucial because it would otherwise be difficult for airline agents to spot well-altered passports.
Interpol’s stolen and lost travel documents database contains 40 million records from 167 countries, but Mr. Noble said not enough countries use it to systematically screen travelers.
As they tried to deflect questions about seemingly lax security, Malaysian officials emphasized that their priority was locating the aircraft. They said they had reviewed military radar records and raised the possibility that the aircraft had tried to turn back just before contact with ground controllers was lost.
Vahid Motevalli, an aviation expert at Tennessee Technological University , in Cookeville, Tenn., said that since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, verifying the identity of passengers had become fundamental. And airlines take a close look at travel documents, he said.
Gen. Rodzali Daud, the commander of the Royal Malaysian Air Force, said that the authorities were “baffled” by the lack of any distress signals from the aircraft and that a closer look at military radar might have indicated a deviation from the flight path.
“Airlines get fined if they allow somebody to board a flight that doesn’t have a proper visa to be able to visit the destination,” Mr. Motevalli said. And if a passenger is refused entry at the destination, “they have to send the passenger back, which is a cost to the airline.”
But Mikael Robertsson, the co-chairman of Flightradar24, a Stockholm-based service that tracks the majority of the world’s passenger jets, said data gathered by separate civilian receivers in the region did not appear to show the jet turning around.
If someone did a good job in altering the stolen passports and inserting the images of the people using them, the question, he said, was whether the information on the theft was readily available to the Malaysians.
For now, such conflicting reports seemed to increase tensions.
It remains possible that the two men onboard with stolen passports had no connection to the airplane’s disappearance.
Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia was quoted saying in the newspaper The Star, that Malaysia would “review all security protocols and, if needed, we will enhance them.”
In 1994, a US Air flight flipped over and crashed on approach to Pittsburgh, killing all 132 people on board. Finding the cause took five years, and along the way, investigators discovered that one of the passengers was a convicted cocaine dealer who was scheduled to testify in a federal drug trial a few days later. It was true but irrelevant; the problem was a flaw in a hydraulic valve in the rudder.
But Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, appeared to flash impatience Sunday in a phone call reported on the ministry’s website.
Malaysian officials emphasized that their priority was locating the aircraft. They said they had reviewed military radar records and raised the possibility that the aircraft had tried to turn back just before contact with ground controllers was lost on Saturday.
“The Malaysia Airlines flight has been missing for close to 40 hours,” he was quoted as telling his Malaysian counterpart. “The Chinese government is treating this very seriously.” He asked that Malaysia “constantly” provide updates on the situation.
Gen. Rodzali Daud, the commander of the Royal Malaysian Air Force, said that the authorities were “baffled” by the lack of any distress signals from the aircraft but that a closer look at military radar might have indicated a deviation from the flight path.
As of Monday morning, Malaysia Airlines has not yet eliminated MH370 from its list of usable flight numbers. The airline is still selling tickets on its website for that flight on Wednesday morning, departure 12:35 a.m., scheduled arrival 6:30 a.m.
“We looked into some of the recording on the radar that we have,” he said. “There is a possibility that there was a turn back.”
Mikael Robertsson, the co-founder and co-chairman of Flightradar24, a Stockholm-based service that tracks the majority of the world’s passenger jets, said data gathered by separate, civilian receivers in the region, did not appear to show the jet turning around.
“I’m not saying it didn’t turn back, but we can’t see that,” Mr. Robertsson said.
He said that the aircraft turned just before vanishing from radar screens but that this was consistent with its flight path.
Although very rare, there have been cases of modern jets plummeting from the sky because of mechanical or pilot error, or a combination of both.
In 2009, an Air France flight traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, partly, a report later concluded, because of malfunctioning instruments.
And an Indonesian jet disappeared in 2007 and was later discovered to have crashed into the sea because pilots were distracted by a malfunction in a navigation system and lost control.
Mr. Xu, the aviation expert, said he believed that an accident, rather than foul play, was the more likely possibility with respect to the missing Malaysian Airlines flight.
“I’m not saying you can definitely rule out terrorism, but I’m more inclined to think it was an accident,” he said.
In the case of a bombing, he said, there would be “wreckage floating on the water that could be easily found from the route and position.”
