Missing Plane Had Passengers with Stolen Passports

The search for a missing Malaysia Airlines flight resumed on Sunday, but the mystery only seems to have grown deeper. Officials don't know what could have taken down the state-of-the-art jetliner and have yet to rule out any causes – including terrorism. Two of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370's passengers evidently used stolen passports to board the flight, which the passports' owners didn't learn until Saturday.

"I'm okay," said the owner of one of the stolen passports, Luigi Maraldi, to the Star Online. "I'm still fine and going to the beach. I don't know when all this began, everyone has been trying to call me including reporters from Italy and I think I would like to just have my privacy." Maraldi is on vacation in Phuket. The other stolen passport belongs to Christan Kozel, an Austrian citizen who is also alive and far from the crash.

The passport thefts, which happened in Thailand (one in 2012 and one last year), were reported in the Interpol database. Still no country checked up on them between the time of the theft and the Boeing 777's disappearance. The international police organization is now cross-checking each passport used to board the missing flight.

Cautioning against jumping to conclusions, Interpol's secretary general, Ronald K. Noble, said in a statement, "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."