Passport for disaster for Malaysian plane

It is not yet known if stolen passports played any part in the disappearance of a plane en route to Beijing, but such oversights are not new, writes Jamey Keaten

INTERPOL knew about stolen passports that two passengers used to board an ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight bound for China, but no authorities checked the police agency’s vast database on stolen documents beforehand, it said — revealing a gaping loophole in global co-operation against one of the world’s biggest but most unrecognised security threats today.

It is not yet known whether stolen passports had anything to do with Saturday’s disappearance of the Boeing 777 bound from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing with 239 people on board. But such oversights aren’t new — and the case points to a little- known threat to security and Interpol hopes national authorities will “learn from the tragedy”.