SectionsSearchSign inThe Guardian world news Malaysia Airlines: object found by Vietnam navy thought to be part of missing plane - live • Sighting of object 80 km south-southwest off Tho Chu island not yet confirmed by Malaysia Airlines• Interpol warns of ‘great concern’ that two passengers with stolen passports had tickets with consecutive numbers and onward flight to Amsterdam.• Immigration staff questioned as part of investigation into possible security breach at Kuala Lumpur international airportOfficials of Malaysia Airlines speak at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photograph: Chong Voon Chung/REXJosh Halliday and Michael SafiMonday 10 March 2014 05.28 ESTShowing key events instead ofAll postsYesterday, 4:55amWe are putting the liveblog on hold this evening, but we will be back up and running with any major development in the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines plane. See below for a summary of today’s updates.Yesterday, 3:34am Latest developments • Debris thought to be from the missing Malaysian Airlines flight has been found in waters 80 km southwest off Vietnam’s Tho Chu island.Officials are waiting for daylight to examine the discovery by a Vietnamese navy plane, with the debris yet to be confirmed as connected to flight MH370. Lack of concentrated debris means plane may have disintegrated at 35,000 ft, investigators say.• Interpol confirmed that at least two stolen passports were used to board the flight at Kuala Lumpur’s international airport. The international policy agency said it was examining additional suspect passports used on the flight and said it was of “great concern” that no checks were made of its database.• Counter-terror authorities in US, Malaysia and other countries join investigation into suspect passengers. The White House is examining the details surrounding the two stolen passports as officials confirm that plane may have tried to turn around over the South China Sea.• Immigration officers are being questioned as part of the investigation into the security lapse that failed to spot stolen passports.CCTV footage has been recovered as urgent inquiry focuses on Kuala Lumpur airport.• Fears are growing for the fate of those on-board as families and friends of the passengers await information in Beijing. The massive search mission grows to 45 ships and 34 aircraft, 48 hours after the plane first disappeared off the radar. Nearly two-thirds of the 227 passengers on the plane are from China, with others from the US, Ukraine, France and other countries.• Rupert Murdoch provoked controversy by tweeting that the “crash confirms jihadists turning to make trouble for China”. The News Corporation corporation faced a backlash with the tweet, posted before it was known what happened to the missing plane.Updated Yesterday, 3:39amYesterday, 3:09amAs friends and family of MH370’s passengers wait anxiously for news of their fate, Associated Press has written about the “rich human tapestry” on the missing Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight.There were middle-aged Australians with wanderlust, an acclaimed Chinese calligrapher, a young Indonesian man heading to begin a new career, and two people traveling on stolen passports.You can read the full article here.Yesterday, 2:03amThe AFP news agency quotes a senior official at the National Committee for Search and Rescue on the search for the Malaysian Airlines plane:We received information from a Vietnamese plane saying that they found two broken objects, which seem like those of an aircraft, located about 50 miles to the south-west of Tho Chu Island.As it is night they cannot fish them out for proper identification. They have located the position of the areas and flown back to the land. Earlier, officials said search teams were waiting until daylight to explore what could be the first sighting of the missing plane. There is no confirmation from Kualar Lumpur or Malaysian Airlines that the debris is connected to flight MH370.Yesterday, 1:27amRupert Murdoch has waded into the mystery of missing flight MH370, claiming that its crash (unconfirmed) is a sign of “jihadists turning to make trouble for China”.— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch)March 9, 2014777crash confirms jihadists turning to make trouble for China. Chance for US to make common cause, befriend China while Russia bullies.Yesterday, 1:09amNo news from Malaysia’s transport and defence minister,Hishammuddin Hussein, on the object found in waters off southern Vietnam. He has just tweeted:— Hishammuddin Hussein (@HishammuddinH2O)March 9, 2014It has been another long day. Thank you all for your thoughtful prayers. Hope will get us through the days ahead. #MH370 #PrayForMH370Yesterday, 1:06am Too dark to confirm possible plane wreckage, officials say Officials are waiting until daylight in Vietnam to send more aircraft to the site where a navy plane has found fragments thought to belong to the missing Malaysian Airlines aircraft.Vietnam’s Civil Aviation Authority said it was too dark to be certain the object in waters off southern Vietnam was part of the missing plane, Reuters reports. It is 10.06pm local time in Hanoi.It’s important to add that the possible sighting – news of which emerged in the last half an hour – has not yet been confirmed by Kuala Lumpur or Malaysian Airlines.Updated Yesterday, 1:15amYesterday, 0:37am Object suspected of belonging to missing plane found Vietnam’s Civil Aviation Authority says a navy plane has found parts suspected of belonging to the Malaysian Airlines plane, Reuters reports. The sighting has not yet been confirmed by Malaysian Airlines, which said an hour ago that it was waiting for information from search and rescue teams. Yesterday, 0:27amBarack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Tony Blinken, has told CNN that the US is looking into reports that two passengers on flight MH370 were using stolen passports.He said it was premature to speculate whether the passengers had a role in the Boeing 777’s disappearance.Blinken also said investigators from the FBI, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are heading to Asia to assist in the investigation.Yesterday, 0:15amIn its first update on the missing plane in four hours, Malaysian Airlines has said it is waiting for more information from Kuala Lumpur’s Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) on the search and rescue mission. — Malaysia Airlines (@MAS)March 9, 2014At this point, no further developments regarding MH370 has been confirmed. We are waiting for new updates from DCA on the SAR efforts.Updated Yesterday, 1:11amYesterday, 0:10amAn airline pilot who flew within 100 nautical miles of the route 12 hours before the Malaysia Airlines flight disappeared said there were some large thunderstorms in the area, with some turbulence, but the weather did not appear to pose serious problems for commercial flights.Updated Yesterday, 0:11amSunday 9 Mar 2014, 11:43pm Latest developments • No wreckage has been found of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, 44 hours after the plane disappeared from radar screens while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A massive search and rescue mission is underway in the South China Sea. A floating object spotted 100km south-southwest of Vietnam’s Tho Chu island was not wreckage from flight.• Interpol confirmed that at least two stolen passports were used to board the flight at Kuala Lumpur’s international airport. The international policy agency said it was examining additional suspect passports used on MH37 and said it was of “great concern” that no checks were made of its database.• Immigration officers are being questioned as part of the investigation into the security lapse that failed to spot stolen passports.CCTV footage has been recovered as urgent inquiry focuses on Kuala Lumpar airport.• Fears are growing for the fate of those on-board as families and friends of the passengers await information in Beijing. Nearly two-thirds of those on the plane are from China, with other passengers from the US, Ukraine, France and other countries.Updated Yesterday, 3:18amSunday 9 Mar 2014, 11:34pmVietnam’s search and rescue vessels have spotted a fresh object has been spotted floating 80 km south-southwest of Tho Chu island, according to Wall Street Journal reporter Vu Trong Khan.An earlier mysterious object turned out not to be the missing aircraft.— Vu Trong Khanh (@TrongKhanhVu)March 9, 2014#MH370 Vietnam search and rescue aircraft spotted new floating object. Authorities are not sure what it is. pic.twitter/m0peec6DVmUpdated Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 11:35pmSunday 9 Mar 2014, 10:59pm Interpol confirms investigation into suspect passengers Interpol has confirmed that at least two stolen passports were used on the missing Malaysian Airlines flight and that it is examining “additional suspect passports” used to board the plane.The international police agency says it is of “great concern” that stolen passports were used and that no checks of its database had been made.Interpol secretary general Ronald K. Noble said: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 databasesWhat is important at the moment is to find out what caused Malaysian Airways flight 370 to go missing, and in this regard Interpol is making all needed resources available to help relevant authorities in Malaysia and elsewhere find out what happened. In the meantime, our thoughts and prayers are with the families, loved ones and friends of the 239 passengers and crew on board.This is a situation we had hoped never to see. For years Interpol has asked why should countries wait for a tragedy to put prudent security measures in place at borders and boarding gates,.Now, we have a real case where the world is speculating whether the stolen passport holders were terrorists, while Interpol is asking why only a handful of countries worldwide are taking care to make sure that persons possessing stolen passports are not boarding international flights.Updated Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 11:13pmSunday 9 Mar 2014, 10:53pm Floating object not missing plane The floating object spotted 100km south-southwest of Vietnam’s Tho Chu island is not wreckage from flight MH370, US officials have told CNN.— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk)March 9, 2014Strange object floating in South China Sea is not debris from Malaysia Airlines plane, U.S. official says. t.co/HUX3CEiczvSunday 9 Mar 2014, 10:29pmMalaysian officials are questioning immigration staff and examining CCTV footage as part of the investigation into whether a security lapse allowed “suspect” passengers on board flight MH370, Reuters reports.The news agency quotes an unnamed Malaysian official as saying:We have deployed our investigators to look through all the security camera footage. Also, they are interviewing immigration officials who let the imposters through. Early indications show some sort of a security lapse, but I cannot say any further right now.The identities of four passengers are the focus of the investigation, Reuters says, including two who were travelling on stolen Austrian and Italian passports. The news agency quotes a source as saying that the other two had European passports, “possibly Ukrainian”.Updated Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 10:32pmSunday 9 Mar 2014, 9:49pmMalaysia Airlines officials said at a press conference earlier on Sunday that terrorism was one line of inquiry in their investigations, as they confirmed that the plane may have tried to turn back.Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 9:42pmFears are intensifying about the fate of those on board the missing Malaysian Airlines flight, more than 42 hours after the plane vanished from radar screens.Friends and family of the passengers are gathering at a hotel in Beijing, where they are being supported by a team of nearly 100 people – mostly counsellors – drafted in by Malaysian Airlines.Nearly two-thirds of the 239 people on board the flight are from China, with others from Russia, Ukraine, India and the US according to a passenger list (PDF) released by the airline.The Chinese passengers included a group of artists who had taken part in a painting and calligraphy exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, AFP reports.The Guardian’s Kim Willsher reports that there were four French passengers on flight MH370.Hélène Conway-Mouret, the junior minister for French citizens abroad, said the passengers included a 52-year-old Frenchwoman who lived in Beijing and who was travelling with her 17-year-old son, his 18-year-old French-Chinese girlfriend, and the woman’s 14-year-old daughter.The French authorities did not give the names of the French passengers, but from the airline passenger list the names appear to be:Laurence Wattrelos, 52, Hadrien Wattrelos, 17, Ambre Wattrelos, 14 and Yan Zhao, 18.All three teenagers are students at the French Lycée in Beijing. The woman is vice-president of the parent-teachers association.Conway-Mouret said:I wish to send a message of support and solidarity to the families of those who disappeared on flight MH370 during this difficult time.Updated Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 9:59pmSunday 9 Mar 2014, 9:22pmWithin the hour, Vietnamese search and rescue vessels are due to reach a suspicious floating object spotted 100km south-southwest of Vietnam’s Tho Chu island.The object is yellow, according to Wall Street Journal reporter Vu Trong Khanh, and was first spotted by Singapore’s search and rescue force.More than 40 ships and 22 aircraft from a number of countries are scouring the South China Sea for any sign of the missing aircraft.Updated Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 9:29pmSunday 9 Mar 2014, 8:54pmThe Guardian’s southeast Asia correspondent, Kate Hodel, reports that an Italian man whose passport was falsely used to board the missing plane has spoken to Thai media.Luigi Maraldi said his passport was stolen when he visited the Thai island of Phuket on 22 July last year, according to the Phuket online paper Phuketwan.The site reports:Mr Maraldi said he arrived on Phuket on March 1 and was planning to leave on March 15. On a holiday last year, he said, he lost his passport in a deal that went wrong at a Patong motorcycle rent shop. The woman who ran the shop told Mr Maraldi that she had given his passport to an Italian man who ‘said Mr Maraldi was his husband.’A second man, Austrian Christian Kozel, whose passport was also falsely used to board the flight, had his passport stolen in the same part of Phuket 18 months earlier, according to media reports citing Austrian authorities.Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 8:16pmThe news agency AFP reports that investigators from the US National Transportation Safety Board traveled to Asia last night to assist the investigation.The civil aviation body said in a statement:Because of the lengthy travel time from the United States, the NTSB has sent a team of investigators, accompanied by technical advisers from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration, to the area so they will be positioned to offer US assistance.Once the location of the airplane is determined, International Civil Aviation Organization protocols will determine which country will lead the investigation.Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 8:00pmThe Guardian’s Tania Branigan has more detail on the movements of the two suspect passengers who boarded the missing plane using stolen passports.Both passengers used Thai baht to purchase their travel tickets on 6 March, a day before the flight took off from Kuala Lumpur destined for Beijing.The pair, who booked tickets with consecutive numbers, were due to fly to Beijing, then wait for around 10 hours before flying to Amsterdam. Once they arrived in Amsterdam, one of the passengers was due to travel on to Frankfurt and the other to Copenhagen.Updated Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 8:17pmSunday 9 Mar 2014, 7:47pmThere is some confusion over how many passengers are being investigated by Malaysian authorities.Malaysia’s Transport Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, initially said at least four names on the flight manifest were suspect but later told the BBC there were in fact only two suspect names.The BBC also reports that a man falsely using an Italian passport and a man falsely using an Austrian passport purchased tickets at the same time, and were both booked on the same onward flight from Beijing to Europe on Saturday.Both had purchased their tickets from China Southern Airlines, the BBC reports, which shared the flight with Malaysia Airlines, and they had consecutive ticket numbers. According to reports, the real owners had their passports stolen in Thailand in recent years. At a press conference in the past two hours, Malaysian Airlines declined to elaborate on its investigations into the passengers, saying only that the names on the passports matched those on the passenger lists. Malaysian Airlines manager Ignatius Ong Ming Choy said:We’re waiting for more information - this is all that we can say. If we have more information we’ll inform everyone.Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 7:19pmThe Guardian’s China correspondent, Tania Branigan, sends this update:China’s ambassador to Kuala Lumpur, Huang Huikang, has urged people to have patience, saying that many things are “beyond imagination and control”, according to the microblog of the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper.Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 7:13pm Developments so far Before I hand over to my colleagues in London, here are the latest developments on missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, still not found more than 24 hours after it went missing near Vietnamese airspace over the South China Sea:No wreckage has been found of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which went missing early on Saturday morning.The U.S. Navy’s 7th fleet has arrived at the last known location of the missing flight to help with search-and-rescue efforts, joining a widened multinational search.A Malaysian search-and-rescue plane has reportedly spotted oil slicks about 20 nautical miles south of flight MH370’s last point of contact.Malaysia Airlines has confirmed that the aeroplane appeared to have turned back towards Kuala Lumpur before it disappeared from radar screens.Two of the passengers are confirmed to have been travelling on stolen passports, but there is some confusion over just how many passengers are being investigated by Malaysian authorities. While Malaysia’s transport minister earlier suggested they were looking at four people, AP says the civil aviation chief later mentioned only two.Updated Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 7:49pmSunday 9 Mar 2014, 6:40pmAt the Malaysia Airlines press conference in Beijing that wrapped up a short time ago, the airline’s CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya told reporters the plane that disappeared suffered a broken wing tip in 2012 but was fully repaired and cleared to fly.“The aircraft had a clipped wing tip. A portion, possibly a metre (1.1 yard) of the wing tip, was torn,” he said. “It was repaired by Boeing and cleared by Boeing and was approved by various authorities. It was safe to fly.”Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 6:17pmFrom the The Wall Street Journal’s Vu Trong Khanh in Vietnam:— Vu Trong Khanh (@TrongKhanhVu)March 9, 2014#MH370 Vietnam rescue authorities: suspicious floating object spotted 100km south-southwest of Tho Chu island. Sending vessels out to checkSunday 9 Mar 2014, 6:14pmThe U.S. Navy’s 7th fleet has arrived:— 7th Fleet (@US7thFleet)March 9, 2014US Navy P-3C is now searching last known location of flight #MH370Updated Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 6:14pmSunday 9 Mar 2014, 6:13pmSome images from Beijing show figures in blue-and-white vests flanking many of the anxious Chinese relatives of passengers on missing flight MH370. They’re from the largest non-government organisation in the Chinese-speaking world, Tzu Chi. It was founded in 1966 by Taiwanese Buddhist nun Cheng Yen, regarded as a kind of Mother Teresa figure across Asia. The volunteers are nicknamed “blue angels”. They’ve been dispatched to Beijing by Malaysia Airlines to provide emotional support to families awaiting news of their loved ones’ fate.Updated Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 6:17pmSunday 9 Mar 2014, 6:03pmThe Malaysia Airlines press conference in Beijing has just wrapped up. The Guardian’s Jonathan Kaiman was there:A senior manager at Malaysia Airlines, Ignatius Ong Ming Choy, has finished his press conference at hotel near Beijing Airport. He emphasised that the aeroplane had not yet been located.“MA has informed family members to expect the worst,” he said.The airline will send two family members for each passenger down to Kuala Lumpur on Monday if they desire to wait for further information there. Choi did not elaborate on reports two passengers were travelling on stolen passports, noting only that the names on the passports matched those on the passenger lists.“We’re waiting for more information - this is all that we can say. If we have more information we’ll inform everyone,” he said.He confirmed the report that the aeroplane appeared to have turned back towards Kuala Lumpur but added that there was no distress signal issued. He said that they were expecting another announcement on the suggestion the plane had turned back. He added: “Fearing the worst, disaster specialists from the USA will be assisting Malaysia Airlines out of Kuala Lumpur as we speak.”On Sunday afternoon the scene at the Lido hotel in Beijing - where about 100 family members are reportedly waiting for further information - was more subdued than on Saturday. The hotel seemed more prepared for the influx of media, with chairs and tables strewn throughout the lobbies and hallways. Volunteers from a Buddhist organisation have been dispatched to help family members cope with their emotional distress.Updated Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 6:22pmSunday 9 Mar 2014, 6:00pmFears over the fate of missing passengers have Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysian and Philippines maritime authorities working together to scour the area of the South China Sea where the plane went missing. That’s notable, given that decades-long tension over maritime borders in the area are increasingly coming to a head.Earlier this year China declared that non-Chinese boats seeking to fish in disputed areas of the ocean would need to seek its permission, which the U.S. State Department labelled “a provocative and potentially dangerous act”. This missing flight appears to have brushed all that aside - for the moment.“In times of emergencies like this, we have to show unity of efforts that transcends boundaries and issues,” Lt. Gen. Roy Deveraturda, commander of the Philippine military’s Western Command, said.Updated Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 6:00pmSunday 9 Mar 2014, 5:53pmReuters has worrying quotes from a couple of air-crash experts, trying to explain why flight MH370 never issued a mayday signal.“Such a sudden disappearance would suggest either that something is happening so quickly that there is no opportunity to put out a mayday, in which case a deliberate act is one possibility to consider, or that the crew is busy coping with what whatever has taken place,” Paul Hayes, director of safety at Flightglobal Ascend aviation consultancy, said.John Goglia, a former board member of the NTSB, the U.S. agency that investigates plane crashes, said the lack of a distress call suggested that the plane either experienced an explosive decompression or was destroyed by an explosive device. “It had to be quick because there was no communication,” he said.Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 5:32pmMalcolm Moore, China correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, is confirming that the men holding the stolen passports of Austrian Christian Kozel and Italian Luigi Maraldi purchased their tickets together. They also both had tickets to Amsterdam aboard the Dutch carrier KLM, and were scheduled to leave Beijing at 11:55am local time on Saturday.— malcolmmoore (@MalcolmMoore)March 9, 2014We have confirmed with China Southern that Maraldi and Kozel bought their tickets together and were both due to fly onto Amsterdam MH370Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 5:28pmThe latest press briefing from Malaysia Airlines is happening right now in Beijing. You can watch it here. The Guardian’s Jonathan Kaiman is there.Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 5:23pmA sense of the mood right now in Kuala Lumpur: Buddhists at the international airport hold a special prayer for the missing. Buddhists hold a special prayer for missing Malaysia Airlines flight at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Photograph: AHMAD YUSNI/EPASunday 9 Mar 2014, 5:20pmA logistical hurdle: many of the anxious Chinese relatives of passengers, still holed up in a Beijing hotel, don’t have passports, delaying efforts by Malaysia Airlines to fly them to Malaysia or Vietnam.— malcolmmoore (@MalcolmMoore)March 9, 2014Malaysia Airlines say they will take family members to Malaysia/Vietnam, but vast majority do not have passports yetUpdated Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 5:20pmSunday 9 Mar 2014, 5:16pmA Malaysian search-and-rescue plane has spotted oil slicks about 20 nautical miles south of flight MH370’s last point of contact, Malaysian newspaper The Star reports.Director-general of Malaysia’s coast guard Mohn Amdan Jurish said his search team sighted “two or three” yellowish patches of oil slick measuring about 10 miles (16km) at about 11am MYT on Sunday.“A ship has been dispatched to the location of the slick to take a samples so we could test whether the oil is from a plane,” Mohd Amdan said. Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 5:11pmA new statement from Malaysia Airlines CEO, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya:Together with all those affected by the MH370 incident, we understand the need to provide regular updates on the progress of the search and rescue operations. As the hours turn into days, we at Malaysia Airlines are similarly anxious and we appreciate the patience, support and prayers from everyone.We however acknowledge that the most affected group in this incident is the families of those on-board. As such, our primary focus at this point in time is to care for the families. This means providing them with timely information, travel facilities, accommodation, meals and emotional support. Initial financial assistance has been given out to all families. Caregivers are already assigned to each family and they are trained staff and volunteers from Malaysia and Australia.Family members of the MH370 passengers from Beijing who wish to travel will be flown in stages to Kuala Lumpur on the available flights. We are also communicating with the families from other nations to similarly arrange for their travel to Kuala Lumpur.In the event flight MH370 is located, a Response Control Centre (RCC) in the area will be activated to support the needs of families.The airline continues to work with the authorities and we appreciate the help we are receiving from all parties during this critical and difficult time.Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 5:05pmTwenty of the passengers aboard the flight work with Freescale Semiconductor, a company based in Austin, Texas. The company said that 12 of the employees are from Malaysia and eight are from China.“At present, we are solely focused on our employees and their families,” Gregg Lowe, president and CEO of Freescale, said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by this tragic event.”Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 5:02pmThere seems to be some confusion over the investigation into passengers’ identities. While the Malaysian transport minister early suggested they were looking at four people, AP says the civil aviation chief later mentioned only two - those travelling under the names of Italian and Austrian citizens.Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 4:52pmMalaysian Airlines are holding a press conference at 3pm BJT, so in about eight minutes.Until then, the New Straits Times is reporting that Malaysian authorities have CCTV recordings of the two passengers who were said to have used false passports to board the missing Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.“We have CCTV recordings of them from check-in until boarding and departure,” Department of Civil Aviation director-general Azaruddin Abdul Rahman said.The recordings have been handed over to investigators.Updated Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 4:58pmSunday 9 Mar 2014, 4:48pmMalaysia Airlines has said it will fly family members from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow. More than 150 of those on board are Chinese, including several artists whose work had been exhibited at an exhibition in Kuala Lumpur.Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 4:45pmVietnam reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Vu Trong Khanh, earlier posted this photograph of Vietnamese authorities co-ordinating the search for flight MH370.— Vu Trong Khanh (@TrongKhanhVu)March 9, 2014Vietnam search and rescue authorities working on Malaysia Airlines #MH370search pic.twitter/DdIl7mXtk7Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 4:40pmA Malaysian newspaper reported on Sunday that the pilot of another flight made brief contact with flight MH370 via his emergency frequency, at the request of Vietnamese aviation authorities who had been unable to reach it as expected. Vietnam has said it believes the flight never entered its airspace.The unnamed man said his Japan-bound plane was deep into Vietnamese airspace when officials asked him to relay to MH370 to establish its position, and that he succeeded at about 1.30am local time.“The voice on the other side could have been either Captain Zaharie [Ahmad Shah, 53,] or Fariq [Abdul Hamid, 27], 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 told the New Straits Times.He said he did not think any more of it at the time, as losing connections was common.Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 4:35pmMalaysia’s air force chief, Rodzali Daud, told reporters on Sunday that military radar showed the missing Malaysian Airlines flight may have tried to turn back to Kuala Lumpur.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.Updated Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 4:37pmSunday 9 Mar 2014, 4:32pmFrom the Guardian’s China correspondent, Tania Branigan:— tania branigan (@taniabranigan)March 9, 2014Worth bearing in mind: in fatal 2010 Air India crash - runway overshoot - reportedly 10 had fraudulent passports t.co/1xfljg4kmISunday 9 Mar 2014, 4:23pmThere are obviously a lot of questions at the moment about the significance of stolen passports. This piece from 2012 examines the stolen passport trade in Thailand, which it says is sizeable.A leader of a major ring of passport thieves, Muhammad Ather Butt, was arrested at the Thai border in 2010. The gang was linked to the Islamic radicals who carried out the 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people. “The gang also allegedly provided forged passports for the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group, which has been accused of plotting the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, in which 10 militants killed at least 164 people and injured more than 300, and to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam separatist group in Sri Lanka,” the story says.Updated Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 4:39pmSunday 9 Mar 2014, 4:18pmMalaysian officials have said that 40 ships and two aircraft are now involved in the search. Vietnamese, Malaysian and Singaporean teams were already in the area; Chinese state media said its vessels had now arrived and the Japan-based US Seventh Fleet has just said on Twitter that USS Pinckney should be there shortly:— 7th Fleet (@US7thFleet)March 9, 2014USS Pinckney should be within helo range to launch its first search in about 2 hours#MH370Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 4:11pm Latest developments No wreckage has been found of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which went missing early on Saturday morning.At a press conference on Sunday morning, Malaysia’s transport minister, Hishamuddin Hussein, revealed that the identities of four passengers aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight are under investigation.He also said that radar showed the plane may have turned back in mid-air.The multinational hunt for the disappeared plane widened on Sunday, involving search-and-rescue teams from China, Vietnam, the Philippines and others.Vietnamese air force planes have spotted two large oil slicks that authorities suspect are from the missing plane.An unnamed pilot flying near where the Malaysian Airlines flight went missing has told The New Straits times that he made contact with flight MH370, after authorities lost contact with it on Saturday morning.An FBI team is flying to Malaysia to assist in the investigation.Updated Sunday 9 Mar 2014, 4:20pmTags: Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 , Malaysia , China , Air transportShare via EmailShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Google+ More on this story Flight MH370: officials puzzled by Malaysia mystery as search widens 4h568comments LIVE Malaysia Airlines flight MH370: Civil aviation chief confirms that search area has been widened - live 5m223comments Missing Malaysia Airlines flight may have turned around before it vanished 19h Italians passport used to board flight MH370 was stolen in Phuket 19h US sends investigators to join search for missing Malaysia Airlines plane 18h49comments Popular Popular inWorld newsPopular inThe Guardian1 Malaysia Airlines flight MH370: men on stolen passports looked like Mario Balotelli - live 2 Flight MH370: officials puzzled by Malaysia mystery as search widens 3 Malaysia Airlines disappearance: the possible explanations 4 Oscar Pistorius trial, day six - in tweets 5 Malaysia Airlines: object found by Vietnam navy thought to be part of missing plane - live 6 North Korea, and Kim Jong-un, go to the polls amid dancing in the street - video 7 Russia risks consequences over Crimea referendum, Cameron and Merkel say 8 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 search resumes - live 9 Missing Malaysia Airlines flight may have turned around before it vanished 10 Skydiver and plane in mid-air collision in Florida – video Back to tophomeUKworldcommentsportfootballlifecultureeconomytraveltechenvironmentAll sectionsSoulmatesJobs Edition: AUUKeditionUSedition View: MobileDesktopAbout this siteHelpContact usFeedbackTerms & conditionsPrivacy policyCookie policy© Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 14:42:33 +0000