SEPANG, March 9 — There were only two passengers in missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 bound for Beijing with dubious identities and not four as reported in several media, Department of Civil Aviation Director-General Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman clarified today.

Azharuddin confirmed at a press conference here that the duo had boarded the ill-fated aircraft using stolen passports, adding that the matter is still under investigation.

“There are only two passengers on record on this aircraft with false passports and we have the CCTV recordings of those passengers from check in, right to the departure point and this record of the CCTVs are now being used in investigations on this,” he told reporters at the Sama Sama Hotel here.

It was reported yesterday that one Italian and one Austrian listed on the flight manifest never boarded the plane.

According to several foreign news reports, Italian Luigi Maraldi and Austrian Christian Kozel, both had heir passports stolen some time ago in Thailand.

The existence of two passengers with stolen passports onboard MH370 raised suspicion on the possibility of foul play.

The Boeing B777-200 Malaysia Airlines airship has now been missing for more than 40 hours.

It was first reported missing earlier yesterday morning after MAS confirmed that the Subang Air Traffic Control had notified it that the aircraft dropped off its radar at around 1.30am.

The Beijing-bound flight had departed from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 12.41am carrying 239 people on board, including 12 crew members and two infants.