Thread: Two on missing Malaysia flight used stolen European passports

Two on missing Malaysia flight used stolen European passports
Mar. 8, 2014

Italian and Austrian men, listed as passengers on Malaysian Airlines flight, had passports stolen in Thailand.


The Malaysian Airline System Bhd. logo is displayed on the company's aircraft at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, Jan. 31, 2013. Bloomberg

Foreign ministry officials in Rome and Vienna confirmed Saturday that names of two nationals listed on the manifest of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight match passports reported stolen in Thailand.

A passenger manifest issued by Malaysia Airlines after its plane went missing off the Vietnamese coast with 227 passengers and 12 crew included the names of Christian Kozel, 30, from Austria, and Luigi Maraldi, 37, from Italy.

Neither European was on the plane, which disappeared Saturday less than an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing, officials said. The Italian was traveling in Thailand and the Austrian was located by police in his native country.

The father of the Italian man told The Associated Press that his son's passport had been stolen a year and a half ago while traveling in Thailand.

"He deposited it with rental car agency, and when he returned the car it was gone," Walter Maraldi said by telephone from his home in the northern Emilia-Romagna region.

Walter Maraldi said authorities could not tell him whether the stolen passport or a counterfeit copy was used by a passenger to board the aircraft.

The father said his son Luigi Maraldi, 37, called his parents from Thailand to tell them he was fine after hearing news reports that an Italian with his name was on board the missing airplane.

Meanwhile, Maraldi's mother told Reuters her son's passport had been lost, presumed stolen, in Phuket in 2013.

"He lost his passport in Thailand, and he reported it to the authorities... Maybe the one who stole it came to a bad end, we don't know, they have to investigate," Renata Lucchi, the mother of 37-year-old Luigi Maraldi, told Reuters.

Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Weiss confirmed that a name listed on the manifest matches an Austrian passport reported stolen two years ago in Thailand. Weiss would not confirm the Austrian traveler's identity.

"We have no information on who might have stolen the passport," Weiss said.

The Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman said: "It's interesting that there were two cases on the same plane but we just know that our Austrian was not on board.

"Someone used a document to get on the plane. But whoever used that, we have nothing to say about that, we don't know, that would be for the authorities to look into," he said.

haaretz.com

so much for airport security! Something fishy going on, but if the plane was the target of terrorists, then why has no group claimed responsibility?

Maybe it was an American missile,there is going to be a lot of maybe's still to come.

MAYBE, everyone needs to sit back and wait for the facts...But no...The conspiracy theorists and the armchair crash officials will be piping in soon enough...

Stolen passports were used to buy two tickets for Malaysia Airlines missing flight

Airline refuses to rule out terrorism

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 08 March, 2014, 11:56pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 09 March, 2014, 4:16am
Associated Press



AP

Two people named on a list of passengers on board missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 were not on the plane, but both had reported their passports stolen.

Foreign ministry officials in Rome and Vienna confirmed on Saturday night that the names of two nationals listed on the manifest of the flight matched those of passports reported stolen in Thailand.

Italian foreign ministry officials said that Luigi Maraldi, originally believed to have boarded the plane in Kuala Lumpur, was traveling in Thailand when the Beijing-bound flight took off at just after midnight on Friday.

He had reported his passport stolen last August, said a foreign ministry functionary, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Italian news agency ANSA says Maraldi called home after hearing reports that someone with his name was on the plane.

"He is alright, he is on vacation, on the beach," his mother told the Italian national TV broadcaster RAI.

Similarly, Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Weiss confirmed that a name listed on the manifest matches an Austrian passport reported stolen two years ago in Phuket, Thailand. Weiss would not confirm the identity, although Britain's Daily Mirror website named him as Christian Kozel, aged 30.



The revelations will raise questions over security at Kuala Lumpur's airport, and how the stolen passports were able to be used by people other than their rightful owners.

At a press conference on Saturday evening an airline spokesman refused to rule out terrorism as a possible reason behind the very sudden disappearance of the flight.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak also refused to rule out a terrorist act.

China Southern, who jointly shared the route with Malaysian Airlines in what is termed in the industry a 'code share', said in a statement it had sold tickets to one Austrian and one Italian.

The airline confirmed it had sold seven tickets in all, including one to a Chinese passenger, one Dutch, 2 Ukranian and one Malaysian.

A total of 239 people were on board the flight when it vanished two hours after taking off from Kuala Lumpur. Twelve crew members and 227 passengers, aged two to 79 years, were named on a list of those on board released by the airline.

The Boeing 777-200ER gave air traffic controllers no indication of any problem before vanishing from radar screens.

An air search for survivors was called off on Saturday night and will resume at daylight.

Vietnamese officials said planes had spotted twin oil slicks in the sea and were sending boats to investigate.

Stolen passports were used to buy two tickets for Malaysia Airlines missing flight | South China Morning Post

As most national passports are electronically chipped today and personal database is extremely difficult to corrupt......I'm finding this story more fishy with each passing moment.

the plot thickens.

Two more Europeans passengers with suspect identities onboard missing MH370

The Malaysian InsiderThe Malaysian Insider – 1 hour 51 minutes ago
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Authorities have yet to confirm the identities of two more European passengers on flight MH370, adding to two others using stolen passports in the Malaysia Airlines plane which vanished over the Malaysia-Vietnam maritime border yesterday.

The Malaysian Insider understands that all four had bought their flight tickets from China Southern Airlines, the Malaysia Airlines codeshare partner for the Kuala Lumpur-Beijing route.

"The background checks with the embassies are being done but these two cannot be confirmed," a source told The Malaysian Insider, adding that both were from the same country.

The Daily Telegraph's Beijing correspondent Malcolm Moore wrote in his Twitter microblog that the Chinese airline had sold seven tickets for the redeye flight, which carried 239 people, including 12 crew members, when it vanished.

More than half of the passengers, 153 to be exact, are Chinese nationals. There are 14 other nationalities on the Boeing 777-200 aircraft, including 38 Malaysians.

Malaysian authorities have downplayed the significance of those flying on stolen passports, with Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Abdul Aziz Kaprawi saying last night that they could not reveal too many details about security.

"We have reviewed the closed-circuit television video footage pertaining to passengers and their baggage.

"So far, we are satisfied with everything," Aziz said, adding that the authorities were not ruling out any possibilities at this juncture.

Malaysia Airlines chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya cautioned against further speculation over those with suspect identities.

"These are reports which we need to form. As far as we are concerned, it is just a report.

"We are working foreign embassies to ensure we can confirm the report... Speculations have begun since this morning and every speculation has been squashed," he was quoted as saying by the Malaysiakini newsportal.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 departed Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12.41am on Saturday and was expected to land in Beijing at 6.30am, a 3,700km journey but it never arrived.

Two more Europeans passengers with suspect identities onboard missing MH370

Those PP's should have long ago been flagged. Probably corruption. Never give up your PP for any reason. Give a copy. I had a PP stolen from the Korean consulate. Someone used it within 15 hrs to fly to the US.

lucky escape for those two

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

As most national passports are electronically chipped today and personal database is extremely difficult to corrupt......I'm finding this story more fishy with each passing moment.

There are plenty of countries that have passports that were issued before the biometric shit started. And plenty of countries that don't have the technology to read it anyway.

Then there is Thailand, that has an awful lot of photos of me. I'd love to see them all on a time lapse video.

It could be called "What Thailand does to you".

it seems that the airlines are not able to validate passports, although immigration checks at the airport should have picked up the stolen passports.

06:13 GMT - Cause - On the possible cause of the incident, Dunleavy says the airline "cannot make any assumptions about the root cause until we locate the aircraft."
"We will not know until we find the aircraft and find the black box."
Where the stolen passports are concerned he says the "airline itself cannot validate a passport we just need to check that when we see a passport it doesn't look like it's been forged, and it's got a legitimate visa."
"Airlines don't have access to national databases about passports, that would be a government investigation."
06:09 GMT - Airline defended - Hugh Dunleavy, commercial director for Malaysia Airlines, is speaking to reporters in Beijing and defending its response to the crisis which has come under attack from distraught relatives.

AFP

The UK have stopped using chipped PP's I believe.

Missing plane highlights Phuket's stolen passport trade
Lindsay Murdoch
March 9, 2014

Investigations into the stolen passports of two passengers listed on missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 have swung to the Thai resort island of Phuket, where there is a thriving stolen passport racket.

Police in Malaysia have also viewed CCTV footage of the passengers on the flight, specifically looking for images of two men listed as Italian Luigi Maraldi and Austrian Christian Kozel.

Mr Maraldi, 37, was surprised to see his name on the passenger manifest because he was in fact holidaying in Thailand.

He rang his father, Walter in Cesena, Italy, according to Italian press reports.

“Ciao, dad,” the younger Maraldi said.

“Have you heard the news about the missing plane? Don’t worry, it wasn’t me who was listed as a passenger on board. I don’t know why my name is on the list, or what happened but I’m ok. I’m in Thailand.”

On an earlier trip to Phuket in August last year Mr Maraldi had his passport stolen from a car rental agency.

According to media reports quoting Austrian authorities Mr Kozel had his passport stolen in the same part of Phuket 18 months earlier.

Both Mr Maraldi are Mr Kozel are reportedly men with average builds and both wear eye glasses.

The Italian honorary consul in Phuket Francesco Pensato confirmed Mr Maraldi is in Phuket and Italian authorities are checking whether the man on the plane may have been a different man with the same name and date of birth. Malaysia Airlines’ code-share partner China Southern Airlines had sold seven tickets for flight 370, including those in the names of Maraldi and Kozel.

Malaysian authorities are cautiously saying talk about the possibility of a terrorist attack bringing down the plane is pre-mature.

“We are looking at all possibilities – it’s too early to reach any conclusions,” said Malaysia’s prime minister Najib Razak.

But the curious thefts of the passports will be a focus of a team of FBI investigators who are flying from the United States to assist Malaysian and other international investigators.

Malaysian authorities have not commented on the CCTV video of the passengers who boarded the early morning Saturday flight at Kuala Lumpur's international airport for the almost six hour flight to Beijing.

CCTV footage of their luggage has also been scrutinised.

“We cannot reveal any more for security reasons,” said Department of Civil Aviation official Azharuddin Abdul Rahman.

Hundreds of passports are lost or stolen on Phuket each year, raising fears they could fall into the hands of criminal or terrorist networks.

Honorary consuls representing countries there often deal with tourists who report their passports missing.

Former Australian honorary consult Larry Cunningham, who retired from his Phuket posting last September, said during his time as consul passport thefts occurred regularly.

“Some passports were certainly lost, falling out of pockets or being genuinely misplaced. But there were also substantial incidents of passports being stolen,” he said.

Six Syrian men have been held at Phuket airport for months after travelling on fake Greek passports.

watoday.com.au

Originally Posted by Mid

Six Syrian men have been held at Phuket airport for months after travelling on fake Greek passports.

Where are they keeping them?...

Originally Posted by Kurgen

The UK have stopped using chipped PP's I believe.

Since when?

Does this passport fraud mean queues will be even longer through immigration at BKK? They seem to stare at the passport for ages before stamping but I never see them swipe it....

There were also 5 passengers who did not board the flight and whose baggage was removed.. BBC News - Missing Malaysia Airlines plane 'may have turned back'

You would think their facebook updates would have made the news by now..

Originally Posted by Necron99

5 passengers who did not board the flight and whose baggage was removed

Last minute 'fear of flying' attack?

5 seems very high for one plane for them to have gone through the check-in process then opted out.

I flew back from KL yesterday and there was one of these bloody 'non-boarding passenger but his/her luggage has been loaded' incidents
Security - three further passport and boarding pass checks in the plane while we were held on tarmac 1hr 10min as they tried to determine who was missing, then locate and remove that person's baggage.
Add in a bonus 'now beginning our descent to Bangkok' followed by a change of mind as we then zoomed away northwards for 15min sightseeing before returning. The joy of air travel.

The two stolen passports bother me. One Italian, one Austrian. Italian guy's name Luigi no less. Austrian probably had an Austrian sounding name as well. There were no name changes on the passports, as the names of the original holders appear on the flight manifest.

Now there could have been photo substitutions, but that still leaves a problem.

Given that virtually all passengers were either Chinese or Malaysian, and that the terrorism gurus are angling in on possible Malaysian Muslims as the chief suspects, how do two Asian men, presumably not speaking Austrian or Italian, present themselves to Malaysian immigration as Luigi the Dago and ????? the Austrian?

Even the dumbest immigration officer should have a question or two? No?

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

The two stolen passports bother me. One Italian, one Austrian. Italian guy's name Luigi no less. Austrian probably had an Austrian sounding name as well. There were no name changes on the passports, as the names of the original holders appear on the flight manifest.

Now there could have been photo substitutions, but that still leaves a problem.

Given that virtually all passengers were either Chinese or Malaysian, and that the terrorism gurus are angling in on possible Malaysian Muslims as the chief suspects, how do two Asian men, presumably not speaking Austrian or Italian, present themselves to Malaysian immigration as Luigi the Dago and ????? the Austrian?

Even the dumbest immigration officer should have a question or two? No?

It's possible they didn't go through Malay immigration at all?
Can you check in with an e-ticket in the transit lounge?

Well, the two holders of the stolen passports purchased their tickets, in Thai Baht, from the coshare, China Southern. The fight started in KL, on to China, then Europe. Both passengers were booked through to two different European destinations - thus no worries about visas in the passports.

But, they had to clear immigration someplace. I guess it is possible that they started their flight elsewhere, hit the transit lounge in KL, then boarding..............but, there's still immigration - somewhere.

Andrew MacG Marshall ‏@zenjournalist 16 mins Flight MH370 — the tickets for men posing as Christian Kozel and Luigi Maraldi were issued in Pattaya

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

Well, the two holders of the stolen passports purchased their tickets, in Thai Baht, from the coshare, China Southern. The fight started in KL, on to China, then Europe. Both passengers were booked through to two different European destinations - thus no worries about visas in the passports.

But, they had to clear immigration someplace. I guess it is possible that they started their flight elsewhere, hit the transit lounge in KL, then boarding..............but, there's still immigration - somewhere.

Yeah, but that could have been somewhere primitive like PNG, Micronesia, Bhutan, Iran....

^Since they bought their tickets in Pattaya, their travel probably did originate from someplace primitive....

Well then, if their tickets were issued in Pattaya, does that mean that they flew out of Thailand to KL, to pick up the MAS flight there? If so, my initial question of how can two Asians pass as Luigi and Christian when clearing immigration still stands, but is now directed at Thai Immigration, who presumably let them both enter and depart on those passports.

And, for those familiar with KL, can you fly in from say Thailand, go straight to the transit lounge without clearing Malaysian immigration, and then board your connecting MAS flight with no document checks?

Originally Posted by jamescollister

Originally Posted by thegent

Wow!!

Breaking news!! Two stolen passports used to board aircraft from Kuala Lumpur!!

For fuck's sake, there's hardly a fucking day when that doesn't happen.

Check in staff and airport security are not forgery experts so quite why idiots should expect them to pick up passport abuse is quite silly.

Old George Dubya and Tony Blair have a lot to answer for. People are terrrroroist crazy and seem to attribute every act to it.

I suspect the accident was caused by severe upper air turbulence precipitated by global warming and not enough air tax.

2014 not 1914, E passports have facial recognition data.
Not been through KL for years, but even Chong Mek Lao border crossing has those little round cameras. They check that the face is the same person as is held in the data chip, not the photo.
All sounds strange
to me, international flight, someone stuffed up, or there is more to lt. Jim

Errr, and those passports which do not contain a chip?

Anyway those little cameras are not checking whether the face before them is the same held on the chip. That would be the immigration officer ........

I think folk here are confusing reality with Hollywood.

Chipped passports simply hold a digitally stored photograph of the bearer which should be identical to the photograph contained in the bio data page. It's function is to defeat photo substitution.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

^Since they bought their tickets in Pattaya, their travel probably did originate from someplace primitive....

Well then, if their tickets were issued in Pattaya, does that mean that they flew out of Thailand to KL, to pick up the MAS flight there? If so, my initial question of how can two Asians pass as Luigi and Christian when clearing immigration still stands, but is now directed at Thai Immigration, who presumably let them both enter and depart on those passports.

And, for those familiar with KL, can you fly in from say Thailand, go straight to the transit lounge without clearing Malaysian immigration, and then board your connecting MAS flight with no document checks?

Aren't we only assuming they are Malays?

Or

"Thai immigration" You no look Austrian."
Passenger "My mother was Malay"
Thai immigration " Oh, ok, no ploplem"....


As to the second, you can do that at any international airport.