Malaysia Airlines Missing Flight Update: Hunt for Missing Plane Continues Amidst Terrorist Suspicions
More than 48 hours have passed since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 lost contact with air traffic controllers over the South China Sea. During the past two days, various countries have contributed in the search for the missing plane. No one knows what happened to the plane since the pilot neither made any distress calls nor reported any malfunctions before losing communications.
An initial Vietnamese Navy report had found oil slicks along the airplane's path. The Vietnamese Navy also spotted debris, which could belong to the missing plane. Spotted 50 miles southwest of Vietnam's Tho Chu Island, the object's origin could not be confirmed from the air due to the approaching night, according to CNN. Search vessels were deployed to that location. Meanwhile, the Thai Navy has moved on to another region to look for the wreckage, CNN continued.
Some have begun speculating as to what happened to the airplane. The Guardian proposed four possible causes: technical failure, intentional ditching, combination of events and a midair explosion. With the possibility of terrorism, the latter cause could be due to a bomb or a simple malfunction, according to the British newspaper.
The possibility of terrorism arose when it was discovered that two of the passports, belonging to an Austrian and Italian, had been stolen. According to CNN, both people listed on the flight manifesto were found safe and by their respective governments. The missing passports have awakened the interest of many anti-terrorist and police agencies.
"Whilst it is too soon to speculate about any connection between these stolen passports and the missing plane, 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," Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said in a statement, according to the AP.
The agency has been warning of passport fraud, but no one checks their databases, according to the AP.