Stolen passports on missing Malaysian passenger jet

[uppityperson]

56. Stolen passports used on Malaysia flight are common

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/09/stolen-passports-malaysia-flight/6230767/

The world is awash in stolen passports such as those that two passengers used to board the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared Saturday, but only a few countries closely monitor their use. More than 40 million travel documents, mostly passports, have been reported stolen or lost, according to a database begun in 2002 — following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States — by the France-based international law enforcement organization Interpol.

"Only a handful of countries worldwide are taking care to make sure that persons possessing stolen passports are not boarding international flights," Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said Sunday. His organization confirmed that at least two stolen passports were used to board missing flight MH370, which lost contact with air traffic control shortly after leaving Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur, en route to Beijing.

Interpol said no country has made any checks on those passports since they were reported stolen in Thailand — an Austrian one in 2012 and an Italian one in 2013 — adding it's unable to say how many other times they might have been used.

"It is too soon to speculate about any connection between these stolen passports and the missing plane," Noble said. Yet he said their use is a "great concern" and should prompt countries and airlines to check Interpol's data before allowing passengers to board.