Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 Missing Update: Iranian Who Bought Tickets for Stolen Passports, Being Hunted - 'Find Mr. Ali'
FBI agents are currently on the hunt for a man known as Mr. Ali, an Iranian who was revealed to have bought the tickets for two passengers who were using fake passports on the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370.
According to Mirror, the two Iranian national passengers, 30-year-old Austrian Christian Kozel, and 37-year-old Italian Luigi Maraldi, wanted to migrate to Europe. A source close to one of the two men claimed that they bought the passports and tickets while they were in Kuala Lumpur. One of them was heading to Frankfurt, Germany, while the other one wanted to go to Denmark.
Malaysian authorities have already provided biometric details and CCTV footages of the two to U.S. officials to speed up the investigation process.
In another article of the news site, the third Iranian in question, Mr. Ali, bought the two tickets through a travel agency. Benjaporn Krutnait, owner of the Grand Horizon travel agency said Mr. Ali requested for inexpensive tickets for a flight to Europe on March 1 and bought them using cash.
Since learning of his connection to Flight MH370, Krutnait has been trying to contact Mr. Ali through the Tehran-based mobile number he provided but it was already dead.
Meanwhile, a group called the Chinese Martyrs Brigade has claimed responsibility of the disappearance of the plane and referred to it as an attack. The group, which was unheard of until now, said in an online message, "You kill one of our clan, we will kill 100 of you as payback." However, authorities believe the claim is only a hoax.
As to the possible fate of Flight MH370, a senior official involved in the investigation process speculated the since they could not find any debris from the plane, it is possible that it may have broken up mid-flight.
He said, "The fact that we are unable to find any debris so far appears to indicate that the aircraft is likely to have disintegrated at around 35,000 feet."