The search for Malaysian Airlines jet continues as six Australian passengers were named by DFAT. Courtesy Channel Ten
A Chinese relative of passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines plane waits for information in Beijing. Source: AP
MALAYSIA'S aviation chief says investigators are examining airport CCTV footage of two passengers with stolen passports who boarded the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.
The development came as Malaysia's air force chief raised the possibility that the missing plane may have turned back.
"There are only two passengers on record with false passports,'' department of civil aviation director general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said.
"We have CCTV recordings of the two passengers. The recordings in the CCTV are now being investigated.''
"There is no four people, only two.''
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It was earlier reported that four passengers were under investigation.
Two European names - Austrian Christian Kozel and Luigi Maraldi of Italy - were listed on the passenger manifest but neither man boarded the plane to Beijing, officials said. Both had their passports stolen in Thailand over the past two years.
Rescue teams searching for the missing flight have widened their search area, Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.
Malaysian authorities expanded their search for wreckage to the country's west coast, and asked for help from Indonesia. Searches so far had concentrated on waters to the country's east, in the South China Sea.
A total of 40 ships and 22 aircraft from an array of countries including China and the US are now involved in the hunt across the two areas, officials said.
Investigators are checking the entire passenger list and counter-terrorism units have been activated.
"At the same time our own intelligence have been activated, and of course, the counter-terrorism units ... from all the relevant countries have been informed,'' the Transport Minister said.
Malaysia's air force chief told the joint media conference that radar indicated the missing Boeing 777 may have turned back, but declined to give further details on how far the plane may have veered off course.
Rodzali Daud said there "is a possible indication that the aircraft made a turnback," adding that authorities were "trying to make sense of that.
Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said the pilot is supposed to inform the airline and traffic control authorities if he does return, but that officials had received no such distress call.
The FBI is sending specialists to Kuala Lumpur to assist with the investigation.
Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Malaysian security agencies were investigating after it was discovered that two passengers may have boarded missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 using stolen passports, raising fears of potential terrorism.
Another pilot who was flying ahead of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane revealed he made contact with the missing aircraft minutes after he was asked to do so by Vietnamese air traffic control.
He said he heard mumbling and static from the cockpit of flight MH370.
The US team includes accident investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, as well as technical experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing.
Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein says counter-terrorism units have been activated. Source: AP
It reportedly went off the radar south of Vietnam.
Oil slicks found in the South China sea by the Vietnamese Army are being investigated but no debris or wreckage has been found.
EXPERTS SHARE THEORIES ON HOW PLANE DISAPPEARED
Six Australians including two couples from Queensland and one couple from New South Wales are among the 239 people on board who are missing and feared dead.
First officer Fariq ab Hamid was on the missing aircraft. Source: Facebook
Sydney couple Niajun Gu and Yuan Li, from the Sutherland Shire, were also travelling to China for a long-planned holiday.
Perth-based father-of-two Paul Weeks, originally from New Zealand, is also among the passengers and crew feared dead.
The Japanese pilot who made contact with the plane told Malaysian media outlets his plane, which was bound for Narita, Japan, was in Vietnamese airspace when he was asked to contact the pilot flying the missing plane.
In using his plane's emergency frequency, he was asked to try and establish its position after authorities failed to make contact.
"We managed to establish contact with MH370 just after 1.30am and asked them if they have transferred into Vietnamese airspace," he told the New Straits Times.
"The voice on the other side could have been either Captain Zaharie or Fariq, but I was sure it was the co-pilot.
"There were a lot of interference... static... but I heard mumbling from the other end.
"That was the last time we heard from them, as we lost the connection," he said."
He said those on the same frequency at the time would have heard him, including vessels on the waters below.
Brisbane couple Rodney and Mary Burrows are among the passengers on the missing plane. Source: Supplied
As Malaysian Airlines released more information about passengers on board the plane, it emerged that two passengers were travelling on stolen passports.
Luigi Maraldi, 27, was listed as the sole Italian national aboard the missing flight, but according to his father, was not on the plane.
"Luigi called us early this morning to reassure us he was fine, but we didn't know about the accident," Walter Maraldi told NBC News. "Thank God he heard about it before us."
The name of an Austrian citizen, Christian Kozel, 30, also appeared on the passenger manifest, but the European nation's foreign ministry stated that the man was safe back home, and that his passport had been stolen.
Officials from Italy and Austria confirmed that the travel documents of both men were reported stolen in Thailand.
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