U.S. Officials have confirmed to NBC news that they are investigating possible terrorism after discovering after it was discovered that four stolen passports were used to board the missing Malaysia Airlines jet to include two belonging to Americans.
According to a senior U.S. official: “We are aware of the reporting on the two stolen passports. We have not determined a nexus to terrorism yet, although it’s still very early, and that’s by no means definitive.”
Austria and Italy are also reporting similar concerns after it was found each country had a person listed on the passenger manifest who did not, in fact board the plane, and had reported having stolen passports.
The Italian man reported his passport was stolen a year ago, but his father confirmed to NBC News that “he was safe and on vacation in Thailand.”
The Austrian foreign ministry confirmed to NBC that their citizen was not on the flight and had reported his passport as missing two years ago. “We believe that the name and passport were used by an unidentified person to board the plane,” a spokesman for the ministry said.
As reported by NBC:
“U.S. officials said they were checking into passenger manifests and going back through intelligence. The revelations came hours after air traffic controllers lost contact with Malaysia Flight 370 over the South China Sea.
“It is unusual for one person to board a plane with a stolen passport and very rare for two to do it, terrorism analysts say. While the possibility that two people may have boarded the jet with stolen passports does not explain how it was lost, it does change how U.S. officials look at the incident.”
The Associated Press is reporting that:
“Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said there was no indication that the pilots had sent a distress signal, suggesting that whatever happened to the plane occurred quickly and possibly catastrophically.
“Asked whether terrorism was suspected, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said, ‘We are looking at all possibilities, but it is too early to make any conclusive remarks.'”
The Associated Press is also reporting that “Vietnamese air force planes on Saturday spotted two large oil slicks in the area where a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 vanished earlier in the day, the first sign that the aircraft carrying 239 people on board had crashed.”
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