Kuala Lumpur, March 10
The “unprecedented mystery” of a missing Malaysian plane deepened today as no trace of its wreckage was found even after three days of multinational operations, prompting authorities to expand the area of search and look into “every angle”, including hijacking.

An Indonesian woman shows a portrait of her son and his wife, both passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, in Sumatra on Monday. AFP

Hopes faded for the relatives of 239 people on board, including five Indians, as Malaysian authorities failed to locate the Beijing-bound Boeing 777-200 flight MH370 of Malaysia Airlines that went missing over the South China Sea on Friday.

“Unfortunately, we have not found anything that appears to be objects from the aircraft, let alone the aircraft itself,” Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, head of Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), said at a news conference.

“This unprecedented missing aircraft mystery -- it is mystifying and we are increasing our efforts to do what we have to do,” he said.

Rahman said investigators were pursuing “every angle” to explain its disappearance, including hijacking. Counter- terrorism agencies and the FBI are also involved in the probe. He discounted reports that a plane door had been spotted.

“That report was not verified officially by the Vietnamese authorities,” Rahman said. Another report said the plane’s tail had been found. that, too, is untrue, he said.

Officials also denied that the oil slick found in waters off Malaysia near the last known location of the missing airliner was from the aircraft. An official said lab tests found that the oil was used for Tongkang, a light wooden boat used in South East Asia.

Currently, 34 planes, 40 ships and teams from 10 countries are involved in search operations. Rahman said the DCA was expanding the area of search operations in the next few days. He said right now they just could not speculate what happened to the aircraft as it had not been found.

He said that besides searching in waters between Malaysia and Vietnam, authorities were also searching on land in Malaysia and off western Malaysia. No emergency signal has been detected and family members of passengers are being told to prepare for the worst.

Malaysia yesterday launched a terror probe into the disappearance of the plane that suddenly vanished from the radar one hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur Airport.

The probe was launched after it emerged that two passengers boarded the flight with stolen passports of an Italian and Austrian. One of the two suspects, who travelled on the plane on stolen passports has been identified.

Rahman said they are probing a stolen passport syndicate and confirmed that the two suspects were not Asian-looking. Rahman said all security protocols were followed by authorities.

Preliminary investigation also indicated that the plane may have turned back, forcing authorities to shift their focus to the Andaman Sea near Thailand's border. The flight had 227 passengers and 12 crew members aboard.

The list of passengers on board the plane included 154 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, 7 Indonesians, 6 Australians, 5 Indians, 4 Americans and 2 Canadians.

The Indians have been identified as Chetna Kolekar (55), Swanand Kolekar (23), Vinod Kolekar (59), Chandrika Sharma (51) and Kranti Shirsatha (44).

Five passengers holding tickets had failed to board that flight, Rahman said.

“Their luggage was off loaded and would not have been in the plane. All check-in luggage was screened,” he said.

Vietnam today scrambled aircraft to check up if a lifeboat-like floating object found in Vietnamese waters was from the missing plane, official Chinese media reported. The Malaysian official said the authorities were as “puzzled” as others over the disappearance of the plane. — PTI

10 nations engaged in search

* Currently, 34 planes, 40 ships and teams from 10 countries are involved in search operations

* An official spokesman said right now they just couldn't speculate what happened to the aircraft

* Besides hunt for clues in the waters between Malaysia and Vietnam, searches were also on on land in Malaysia and off western Malaysia

* No emergency signal has been detected

Speed up, says China

China urged Malaysia to step up the search for the jetliner that went missing with 239 people on board, about two-thirds of them Chinese. China said it had sent security agents to help with an investigation into the misuse of passports.