SEPANG, March 11 — Airport immigration officers had followed all standard operating procedures to a tee when checking in passengers into Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, department chief Datuk Aloyah Mamat said today.
The Immigration Department director-general told a press conference here that the duo who travelled using stolen passports had not caught the attention of the immigration officers on duty as their faces had matched their passport photographs.
She added that both men had entered Malaysia for the first time on February 28 and were not carrying biometric passports.
“This is first time they entered our country... that’s the first time we recorded their biometrics and when they left, it was the same biometrics,” she said, referring to the thumbprint recognition authentication system.
According to Aloyah, the two who later used the stolen passports of Italian Luigi Maraldi and Austrian Christian Kozel, arrived on February 28, passed through immigration checks at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) without trouble and were both issued social visit passes valid for 90 days.
“Both — Kozel and Maraldi — claim that their passports … were stolen and this was confirmed by Interpol,” said Aloyah.
The identity of passenger who misused Kozel’s passport was revealed as Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, a 19-year-old Iranian.
Pouria had used the Austrian passport with the number P2979523 when he presented it to an Immigration officer on duty at 8.28pm on February 28, said Aloyah.
The unidentified passenger had also arrived at KLIA on the same day as Pouria but under the Italian passport bearing the number YA3189197 at 10.43pm. It is not known where the duo had arrived from.
Inspector-General of the Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar revealed that checks on Pouria’s background did not suggest links to terrorist groups, only that the latter was intending to migrate to Germany on a stolen passport.
“After being satisfied with that the relevant information was in order and the social visit pass was valid, they were both allowed to proceed with their journey,” said Aloyah, referring to the checks done upon their departure on the Beijing-bound from KLIA on Saturday.
The Boeing 777-200 jet that left Kuala Lumpur and was about 40 minutes into its journey to Beijing when it vanished from the skies with 239 people on board.
The aircraft was last seen on radar about 120 nautical miles from Kota Baru on Malaysia’s east coast.
Three days into its mission, a multi-country search involving 35 aircraft and 47 ships has yet to find the jumbo jet.
