Malaysia Airlines: Phone of missing passenger rings mysteriously

Kuala Lumpur, March 10: While reports are rife that debris of the missing Boeing 777, which went off the air traffic radar on Saturday, have been spotted, investigators probing its sudden disappearance are facing yet another mystery.

The family member of one of the missing passengers aboard the plane got through his mobile phone, but nobody answered. Following this, the relatives asked the Malaysia Airlines to use satellite technologies and intercept the phone signals before the battery dies down.

Meanwhile, Malaysian authorities launched a terror probe, after spotting two passengers in the ill-fated flight who may have been travelling on stolen passports.

Prime Minister Najib Razak stressed that the airport security procedures need to be reviewed. Investigating the passports of the missing passengers, Interpol has concluded that two of the passports-an Italian and an Australian- had been stolen in Thailand in 2013 and 2012 respectively.

Surprisingly, no checks of the stolen passports were made by any country since the time they were entered into the Interpol's database. Therefore, it has become rather impossible for the Interpol to determine how many times the passport has been used to board flights and cross borders.

Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said,"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."

Criticizing lackadaisical security services at International airports, Interpol said,"For years Interpol has asked why should countries wait for a tragedy to put prudent security measures in place at borders and boarding gates. Now, we have a real case where the world is speculating whether the stolen passport holders were terrorists."

It also said,"only a handful of countries worldwide are taking care to make sure that persons possessing stolen passports are not boarding international flights." [Read]

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