Missing plane: Malaysia still clueless, terror link downplayed

Baffled by the disappearance of a Malaysian plane, police today said they are probing four possibilities, including hijacking and sabotage, to solve the aviation mystery, even as it emerged that two Iranians travelling on stolen passports had no terror link.

Interpol today confirmed the identities of two young Iranian men who used stolen passport to board Malaysia Airline flight MH370. The plane with 239 people on board, including five Indians, vanished over the South China Sea on Friday one hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur.

The two were identified as Pouri Nour Mohammadi, 19, and Delavar Suyed Mohammad Reza, 30.

One of them was trying to emigrate to Germany and authorities were in contact with his mother, who had been expecting her son to arrive in Frankfurt.

Richard K Noble, the international police organisation's secretary-general, said the two flew from Doha to Kuala Lumpur with Iranian passports and then switched to the stolen Austrian and Italian passports to board the Boeing 777-200 plane to Beijing.

The use of the stolen passports by two passengers on the plane raised fears that its disappearance could be linked to terrorism.

Noble, however, played down the possibility that the duo were terrorists.

"There has been speculation about whether or not this was a terrorist attack. In the last 24 hours you see the story changing, but it becomes more certain that these individuals were probably not terrorists," he said.

Neither Iranian is listed on the Interpol database.

As the search for the plane entered into fourth day today with no clue so far, police said they are also "looking into four areas: hijacking, sabotage, psychological problems of the passengers and the crew, and personal problems among the passengers and the crew" to solve the mystery.

Speaking to reporters, Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said they were looking at all angles and studying behavioural patterns of those on board the aircraft. He said that Federal CID director Commander Hadi Ho Abdullah would lead a team to investigate these four areas.