TIENPHONG.VN/HANDOUT/EPA
A picture taken by personel of a Vietnamese search aircraft shows what is believed to be a piece of debris of missing Malaysia Airlines airplane at an undisclosed location.
The first pieces of an aircraft that mysteriously vanished in southeast Asia Saturday may have finally been found.
Pieces of the Malaysia Airlines flight’s inner door and a piece of the tail was found about 50 miles south-southwest of Tho Chu island, Vietnam officials said Sunday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
There is no official confirmation. A boat had found fragments a little further from the coast earlier Sunday that was thought to be part of the plane but it was actually just coral reef.
STAFF/REUTERS
Malaysian residents ride a fishing boat past navy search and rescue ships before they depart to search for the missing Malaysian Airlines plane.
If this is part of the plane it could finally shed some light on what exactly happened to the flight and its 239 passengers that has been missing since an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, bound for Beijing.
A new theory emerged Sunday that the Boeing 777 may have disintegrated in mid-flight.
Though authorities are continuing to examine the possibility of terrorism, but an official involved in the investigation told Reuters if the plane crashed or a bomb onboard detonated, a chunk of debris would most likely have been found in a concentrated area.
Lai Seng Sin/AP
Buddhist monks offer a special prayer for passengers aboard a missing plane at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Sunday.
"The fact that we are unable to find any debris so far appears to indicate that the aircraft is likely to have disintegrated at around 35,000 feet," said the source.
So far there is no evidence of foul play, the source said. A basic security check was mishandled regarding the missing Malaysia Airlines flight that had at least two passengers who used stolen passports, an international police agency said Sunday.But investigators are also trying to determine the possibility of how as many as four people were able to board the flight with fake documentation.
MALAYSIAN MARITIME ENFORCEMENT/AFP/Getty Images
Malaysian Maritime Enforcement personnel using radar to scan for the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777.
Interpol released a sharply worded criticism of the nations for not checking the international passport database that would have revealed the passports of two passengers were stolen more than 18 months ago in Thailand.
Interpol said it was investigating all other passports used to board Flight MH370 and working to determine the "true identities" of the passengers who used the stolen passports.
Authorities believe possibly four people boarded the plane with false documentation, the Washington Post reported.
Philip Talmadge Wood of Texas, who worked in Malaysia as an executive at IBM.
Early Sunday morning, Malaysia's air force chief said that military radar indicated the missing Boeing 777 jet may have turned back to Kuala Lumpur, but declined to give further details on how far the plane may have veered off course.
Rodzali Daud, head of the Royal Malaysian Air Force, said "there is a possible indication that the aircraft made a turnback" and that authorities were "trying to make sense of that."
New York Daily News
Route of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said the pilot is supposed to inform the airline and traffic control authorities if he does return, but that officials had received no such distress call.
The Pentagon reviewed initial surveillance data from the location where the plane disappeared and did not find evidence of an explosion, reports The New York Times.
If all the passengers died in the crash it would be the largest number of casualties in a commercial flight since Nov. 12, 2001, when 260 people died aboard a flight from Kennedy Airport to the Dominican Republic, the Times reports.
HOANG HA/EPA
An aerial view of what is believed to be an oil slick taken from a Vietnamese Air Force aircraft.
A massive internationals search is underway, but so far there is no sign of the plane. A pair of massive oil slicks was spotted in the South China Sea that could indicate leaking oil, but no more information is known at this point.
The plane was inspected just 10 days ago and found "in proper condition," said Ignatius Ong, CEO of Malaysia Airlines subsidiary Firefly.
DEDY SAHPUTRA/EPA
The parents of Firman Chandra Siregar cry as they watch television at their house in Indonesia. Siregar is one of 239 people who is onboard the missing plane.
A team from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board was dispatched to Asia to aid in the investigation.
Asked if terrorism was a possibility, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said it was too early to say. "We are looking at all possibilities," he added.
Confirmation that two travelers headed from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing were identity thieves suggested something sinister, although U.S. officials echoed Razak's caution until more details are known.
CHINA DAILY/REUTERS
A Chinese navy warship prepares to leave for the search and rescue operations of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.
"This gets our antenna up, for sure," said Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee. "Once you hear that — stolen passports, a plane disappearing from the radar — you have to go to the full-court press."
A federal law enforcement source said the U.S. was "still monitoring the situation."
King said intelligence agencies around the world would no doubt check for "communications among terrorists or any type of chatter" about the flight.
SIREGAR FAMILY/HANDOUT/EPA
Firman Chandra Siregar (center), one of the 239 passengers aboard Flight MH370, poses in this family picture.
King reiterated on “Meet the Press” Sunday morning that they still don’t know the cause of the plane’s disappearance but noted the event “is a red flag.”
“The fact that the plane disappeared, that there was no Mayday, the fact that happened in Malaysia, which has been a hub for Al Qaeda activity … you put all that together and you have two people that are traveling together with stolen passports … considering what’s happened in the past, we have to certainly consider terrorism,” he said.
A helicopter lands onboard a Chinese ship expected to join the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines' passenger plane that vanished Saturday.
The three U.S. passport holders were identified in a manifest posted by Malaysia Airlines as Philip Wood, 51, and two children: Nicole Meng, 4, and Yan Zhang, 2.
Wood, an IBM employee and father of two boys, was based in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. "We're all sticking together," his father, Aubrey Wood, told The New York Times. "What can you do? What can you say?"
Wood's ex-wife, Elaine, originally from the Bronx, described him in a Facebook post as "a wonderful man."
Krissada Muanhawong/AP Photo
Italian Luigi Maraldi, left, whose stolen passport was used by a passenger boarding a missing Malaysian airliner, shows his passport as he reports himself to Thai police at Phuket police station in Phuket province, Thailand, Sunday, March 9.
Twenty employees of an Austin, Texas-based tech firm were also aboard the flight. Twelve of the Freescale Semiconductor employees are from Malaysia and eight from China, company officials said.
Officials in Italy and Austria confirmed Saturday that the names of two passengers on the flight manifest matched passports reported stolen in Thailand. The Italian passport was swiped 18 months ago, while the Austrian travel document disappeared two years ago, officials said.
The two passengers who used fake passports from residents of an Italian and Austrian citizen bought their tickets together from China Southern Airlines, reports CNN. The passengers used Thai currency, the station reports.
Italian Luigi Maraldi, 37, is now living in Thailand, while the Austrian was located in his homeland. Maraldi called his parents in Italy to reassure them of his safety after his name appeared on the flight manifest.
The U.S. Navy dispatched a warship and a surveillance plane to join the multinational search team that failed to turn up any wreckage across 17 fruitless hours before nightfall in Southeast Asia.
Malaysia sent 15 planes and nine ships, while Vietnam sent two navy boats, two jets and a helicopter.
The twin jets spotted the slicks in the South China Sea; one was about 9 miles long, and the other about 6 miles long, officials said. Each was consistent with the residue of a crash by a jetliner with two fuel tanks, authorities confirmed.
"We are doing everything in our power to locate the plane," said Malaysia Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
About two-thirds of the likely crash victims were from Taiwan and China, with distraught family members at the Beijing airport steered to a nearby hotel to await the expected delivery of grim news. One woman, boarding a shuttle bus, wept as she spoke on a cellphone. "They want us to go to the hotel. It cannot be good," she said.
With News Wire Services
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