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Stolen Passports on Vanished Jet Sends the “Red Flag”

According to Fox News, Interpol says that no country checked its database for information about the stolen passports that were used to board the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared with 239 people on board and took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, bound for Beijing.

A caller identified himself as a member of a French-based anti-terror network and said he had called Taiwan’s national airline because he couldn’t reach anybody in Beijing. According to the report by Taiwan’s Central News Agency, a man speaking Chinese claimed to have information of planned attacks directed against Beijing’s airport and subway system by the East Turkestan Independence Movement, an Islamic-inspired group seeking independence for the Uighurs. According to the L.A. Times, the anonymous call that was placed was only one of dozens of possible clues investigators are looking at, as they struggle to explain how the airline  flight, carrying 239 people, has simply vanished. Officials say finding the wreckage of the flight is “the utmost priority.”

The U.S. Navy sent a warship, the USS Pickney and China and Vietnam are sending aircrafts to help in the search. Now troubling questions are emerging about how two passengers managed to board the Boeing 777 using stolen passports. Malaysian authorities have identified one of the two men who used stolen passports to board the missing Malaysia Airlines jet. Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar told the Star, a major Malaysian newspaper, “I can confirm that he is not a Malaysian, but cannot divulge which country he is from yet,” adding that the man is also not from Xinjiang, China.

Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of the Department of Civil Aviation, said during a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, “There is still no sign of the aircraft.” It is not uncommon for it to take several days to find the wreckage of an aircraft floating on the ocean.

Image credit: www.bloomberg.com

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