KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 — Intelligence agencies monitoring terrorist networks have not encountered credible signs of known terror organisations claiming links to the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370, according to a US security official.
The possibility of foul play in the disappearance of the Beijing-bound plane carrying 239 passengers is now being investigated after it was revealed that at least two dubious passengers boarded using stolen passports.
But the unnamed US official told NBC News that only the usual attention-seeking “wackos” have surfaced to claim that they were behind the plane mysteriously vanishing from radar in the early hours of Saturday.
Larger terror networks, such as the al Qaeda group that was behind the September 11, 2011 hijackings in the US, customarily take credit once their attacks are completed, NBC News pointed out.
Ethnic and separatist unrest in China were earlier thrown into the spotlight when knife-wielding attackers believed to be of the Uighur ethnicity from the Xinjiang region stormed a train station in Kunming, killing 29 people and wounding 130 others.
Yesterday, authorities widened their probe of the missing flight to include the possibility that the Boeing 777 — one of the safest aircraft in aviation history — disintegrated in mid-air.
Suspicions were heightened when it was later revealed that the two Asian men travelling using stolen passports of an Italian and Austrian had bought one-way tickets for the flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
But investigators maintain there is no evidence of foul play and even the scenario of catastrophic failure could have been due to structural or mechanical issues.
The United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation and other US law-enforcement agencies have offered to help investigate the case, saying they have forensic and analytic tools and criminal investigation expertise that likely could aid the probe.
Flight MH370 has now been missing for more than two days since it lost contact after departing Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing, China on March 8.
There were 239 people on board, including 12 crew members.
