MH370: Who is telling the truth now?

The mystery of missing Malaysian Airlines (MAS) MH370 deepened Tuesday when authorities gave conflicting statements on the actual number of passengers onboard the flight.

Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) initially said that five people had checked-in with their luggage but did not board the flight.

DCA director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said luggage belonging to the five were removed and found to be ‘clean’.

“We removed their baggage. Every piece of baggage was recorded and given a unique serial number so that the correct baggage was removed from the aircraft,” he told reporters at a press conference.

The issue of the five who did not board the flight became a hot topic and many were left wondering who they were and if the authorities have investigated that angle.

And on Tuesday, the fourth day of search and rescue (SAR) operation, Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar contradicted Azharuddin, and said that based on police investigation, all passengers who checked-in, have boarded the flight.

He said there was only one person who missed the flight, and it was a woman who mistook the flight date.

It has been established that the passenger was MBA student of Tsinghua University, Jessica Yee Wai Ching.

"We in the police have investigated and that there was no passenger who checked-in but did not board the flight,” he said at a press conference at Hotel Sama-Sama, Sepang, Tuesday.

“There is no such thing as five person who did not board the plane. You take it from me, there is no such thing,” he told reporters.

About two hours after Khalid’s press conference, MAS issued a statement that only four passengers with valid tickets did not turn up for check-in.

"Malaysia Airlines wishes to clarify that there were four passengers who had valid booking to travel on flight MH370, 8 March 2014, but did not show up to check-in for the flight," a statement from MAS read.

"As such, the issue of off-loading unaccompanied baggage did not arise, as the said four passengers did not check in for the flight," it read.

MH370, a code share flight with China Southern Airlines, left KLIA for Beijing at 12:41am Saturday morning.

All communication with the plane was lost at 1:30am and no distress signal or call was received.

The flight had registered 239 passengers, 38 of them Malaysian. It was scheduled to arrive at Beijing International Airport at 6:30am, S