IGP contradicts DCA on MH370 passengers

PETALING JAYA: Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar today refuted claims by the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) that several passengers who had checked in did not board the fateful Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

 

In a press conference today, Khalid revealed that only one person had missed the flight.

“Only one person missed the flight, and it was a lady. She had called Malaysia Airlines to cancel the ticket because she had mistook the date,” said Khalid.

 

His statement contradicted DCA director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman’s previous statement that five people had purchased the plane tickets and had even checked in their baggage but did not make the flight.

 

Azharuddin had then confirmed that MAS had removed the passengers’ baggage after the national carrier learned that the five people did not board the place.

 

However when asked by reporters today, Khalid stressed that no such incident had occurred.

“There is no such thing as five person who did not board the plane. There is no such thing,” said the police chief.

 

“You take it from me, there were no such thing.”

 

“Nobody booked the ticket that did not board.”

 

Four areas

 

Khalid said that four areas were being looked into, namely, possible hijacking, sabotage, the psychological problem as well as personal problem of passengers and crew members.

Explaining further, he said a passenger might have bought a huge sum of insurance and wanted family members to gain from it.

 

Khalid added that the police were working with counterparts from 14 other countries and are exchanging information with them.

 

A discussion was also held with a team of officers from China’s public security office.

“We have been supplied with photographs of 150 Chinese passengers. We are currently going through the profiles of all the passengers,” he said.

 

When asked on whether there were possible leads of the plane being hijacked, he said: “We are looking into all angles.”

 

“Give us some time to go through everything,” he said, admitting that the police do not have prior intelligence on activities of terrorists in particular.

 

Flight MH370, carrying 227 passengers, including two infants, and 12 crew, went missing enroute from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing about an hour after taking off from KLIA at 12.41am on Saturday.

It should have landed at 6.30 am.