MH370: Second man named, Interpol says less likely a terrorist attack

Interpol said Tuesday that the case of the MH370 disappearance now seem less likely to be an act of terrorism.

"The more information we get, the more we are inclined to conclude it is not a terrorist incident,” said Ronald Noble, the secretary-general the international law enforcement agency.

During the press conference at Interpol's headquarters in Lyon, France, Noble also named the second person who boarded the flight MH370 using a stolen passport,

The second man was 30-year-old Iranian Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza, he said.

Earlier today, the first man was identified by Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar as another Iranian, 19-year-old Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad.

Khalid said that Pouria Nour was planning to enter Germany as a migrant, and was “not likely to be a member of any terrorist group.”

Noble said the two Iranians had started their trip in Doha, but then swapped their Iranian passports for the two stolen ones – belonging to an Austrian Christian Kozel and Italian Luigi Maraldi – to board MH370.

They reportedly bought their plane tickets in Thailand and entered Malaysia together, authorities said.

"We know that once these individuals arrived in Kuala Lumpur on the 28th of February, they boarded flight 370 using different identities, a stolen Austrian and a stolen Italian passport," Noble said.

Noble played down speculation the two might have been involved in terrorism.

"There has been great speculation about whether or not this was a terrorist attack...already in the last 24 hours you see the story changing as the belief becomes more certain that these individuals were probably not terrorists."

Noble said that from Interpol’s perspective, the two “just might be people who are trafficked or smuggled”.

Interpol also believes no other suspect passports were used to board the plane, said Noble.

While Noble said that the world focus should be on finding the plane and hopefully its survivors, as well as helping investigations; he also cautioned that authorities should be “thinking about next cases where dangerous people might be crossing borders with evil in their hearts”.

MH370 disappeared from the radar less than an hour after it departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41am Saturday en route to Beijing.

The Boeing 777-200 was carrying with it 239 passengers and crew.

The search and rescue mission for the plane still continues.