International crime investigation body Interpol has confirmed that one Austrian and one Italian passport used by passengers boarding the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 were on its record of stolen travel documents.
"The Austrian and Italian passports were added to Interpol's stolen and lost documentation database after their theft in Thailand in 2012 and 2013 respectively," the organisation says, adding that it is conducting checks on all other passports used to board flight MH370 which may have been reported stolen.
It notes that no checks of the stolen Austrian and Italian passports were made by any country between the time they were entered into the database and the departure of flight MH370. "At this time, Interpol is therefore unable to determine on how many other occasions these passports were used to board flights or cross borders," it adds.
“Whilst it is too soon to speculate about any connection between these stolen passports and the missing plane, it is clearly of great concern that any passenger was able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in Interpol's databases,” says its secretary general Ronald Noble.
Interpol says it is in contact with its National Central Bureaus in the involved countries to determine the true identities of the passengers who used these stolen passports to board the missing Malaysia Airways flight.
The search continues to find flight MH370 which Malaysian air traffic controllers lost contact with at 01:30 on the morning of Saturday 8 March. The Boeing 777-200 was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew.