The head of Interpol has said he does not believe the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines plane was a terrorist incident as he revealed the identity of both of the men who used stolen passports to board the plane.
Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble said Iranian nationals Pouria Nour Mohammah Mehrdad, 19, and Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza, 29, travelled to Malaysia on their Iranian passports before switching to the stolen Austrian and Italian documents.
He said the recent information about the men made terrorism a less likely cause of the plane’s disappearance. He said: ‘The more information we get, the more we are inclined to conclude it is not a terrorist incident.’
Malaysian police released images of the two men after they revealed the identity of the 19-year-old,
who was believed to have been planning to enter Germany to seek asylum and was not thought to be a member of a terrorist group.
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Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble said Iranian nationals Pouria Nour Mohammah Mehrdad, 19, and Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza, 29, travelled to Malaysia on their Iranian passports before switching to the stolen Austrian and Italian documents
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The announcement came as authorities expanded their search for the Boeing 777 on the opposite side of the country from where it disappeared nearly four days ago with 239 people on board
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Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said the possibility the plane had been attacked by terrorists was ‘fading’, adding his detectives were now looking into four main areas: sabotage, hijacking or psychological problems among either the crew or the passengers
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Police have identified one of the men as a 19-year-old Iranian who was believed to have been planning to enter Germany to seek asylum
Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said the possibility the plane had been attacked by terrorists was ‘fading’, adding his detectives were now looking into four main areas: sabotage, hijacking or psychological problems among either the crew or the passengers.
The announcement came as authorities expanded their search for the Boeing 777 on the opposite side of the country from where it disappeared nearly four days ago with 239 people on board.
In the absence of any sign that the plane was in trouble before it vanished, speculation has ranged widely, including pilot error, plane malfunction, hijacking and terrorism.
The terrorism theory has weakened after Malaysian authorities determined that one of the two men was an Iranian asylum seeker.
Khalid said his team of investigators did not believe Pouria was part of a terrorist group but was using a stolen passport to fly to Germany.
Asked how he had established this, he said: ‘We’ve spoken to his mother. She has been waiting for him to arrive in Frankfurt.
‘When he did not arrive she realised something had gone wrong and then she heard about the plane disappearing.’
Khalid said the possibility that the plane had been attacked by a terrorist group was ‘fading’ – adding that ‘terrorism is less likely’ – but then he revealed that an illegal act could not be ruled out.
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Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar today said the 19-year-old was not believed to be a member of a terrorist group
He said: ‘We are looking into four areas – one hi-jacking, two sabotage, three a psychotic problem of passengers or crew, four personal problem among the passengers and crew.
‘We have been going through passenger manifests and we have communicated with our counterparts in at least 14 countries and also from other parts of the world and we have been exchanging information and intelligence.’
Asked if it was still possible that a bomb could have been loaded onto the aircraft through a passenger’s luggage, he said that ‘we are looking into all areas of possibilities.’
He pointed out that even though there were four areas of the investigation, he had no confirmed information that would lead to his detectives specifically targeting any of those areas.
The plane took off from Kuala Lumpur, on the western coast of Malaysia, early Saturday en route to Beijing. It flew overland across Malaysia and crossed the eastern coast into the Gulf of Thailand at 35,000 feet (11,000 meters).
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In a statement, Malaysia Airlines said search and rescue teams ‘have expanded the scope beyond the flight path to the West Peninsula of Malaysia at the Straits of Malacca
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Authorities have expanded their search for the Boeing 777 on the opposite side of the country from where it disappeared nearly four days ago with 239 people on board
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The new statement said authorities are looking at a possibility that MH370 attempted to turn back toward Kuala Lumpur
Read more: DailyMail
