Mystery deepens as Malaysia says vanished airliner may have been turning around

Washington Post: FOUR flew with false ID aboard Malaysia Airlines plane that vanished over South China Sea

European officials indicated Saturday that two people on board were using passports that had been stolen in Thailand. Flight booking information showed the passengers had consecutive ticket numbers, and both were booked on a subsequent flight from Beijing to Amsterdam. 

One of the passengers was due to proceed to Frankfurt, the other to Copenhagen. Malaysia’s Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that intelligence officials were also checking the identities of two other passengers, according to The Associated Press. 

“All the four names are with me and have been given to our intelligence agencies,” Hishammuddin said, according to AP. 

“We do not want to target only the four; we are investigating the whole passenger manifest. We are looking at all possibilities.” 

Later, however, the director of Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation said there were only two men with false passports, and that authorities were checking closed-circuit television footage of them. 

“We have the CCTV recordings of those passengers from check-in right through the departure point,” he said, according to Bloomberg. “These records of CCTV are now being used for investigation of this matter.” 

On Sunday, Malaysia said the flight might have turned back from its scheduled route to Beijing before disappearing from radars. 

“What we have done is actually look into the recording on the radar that we have and we realized there is a possibility the aircraft did make a turnback,” said Rodzali Daud, the Royal Malaysian Air Force chief, at a news conference, according to the Reuters news agency.

 Passport Theft Adds to Mystery of Missing Malaysia Airlines Jet

Quote: "A senior American intelligence official said law enforcement and intelligence agencies were investigating the issue of the stolen passports. American authorities were scrutinizing the flight manifest closely, the official said, noting that forged travel documents are also used routinely by smugglers and illegal immigrants. 

“At this time, we have not identified this as an act of terrorism,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity Saturday because of the continuing inquiry. “While the stolen passports are interesting, they don’t necessarily say to us that this was a terrorism act.” 

AND THEN THERE'S THIS:

Department of Civil Aviation director-general Azaruddin Abdul Rahman also confirmed that five passengers did not board the MH370 flight, and their baggage were removed from the cargo. He did not say why they did not board the plane. Straitstimes.com 

AND THIS:

DISINTEGRATION