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Malaysia Airlines investigation: Live Report

08:54 GMT - AFP IS CLOSING THIS LIVE REPORT on the ongoing search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet. In key events over the day, Malaysia launches a terror probe into the disappearance, investigating 4 suspect passengers, two who boarded with stolen passports. Chinese state media reports a Chinese person whose passport number is among those listed for passengers did not in fact board the plane. The US sent the FBI to investigate, but stressed there was no evidence of terrorism yet. Malaysian authorities expanded their search for wreckage to the country's west coast, and asked for help from Indonesia. A total of 40 ships and 22 aircraft from an array of countries including China and the US are now involved in the hunt across the two areas. Malaysia's air force chief, General Rodzali Daud, citing radar data, says there "is a distinct possibility the airplane did a turn-back, deviating from the course," but Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said the Boeing 777's systems would have set off alarm bells if it did. 08:26 GMT - "No trace" - Hamid Mohamad Amin, director of operations with the Malaysian maritime enforcement agency, tells my colleague M. Jegathesan: "We have our ships and planes in the South China Sea and Malacca Strait looking for the missing aircraft." "There is no trace of the missing plane," some 40 hours after it disappeared from radar screens. 08:15 GMT - "Pleasant and humble" - Malaysian newspaper, the New Straits Times, describes the missing plane's pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, as a "pleasant and humble man", quoting another pilot who used to fly with Zaharie in the 1980s. "Zaharie was always smiling and very cheerful. We shared a lot of good memories. We were like brothers," Ritzeraynn Rashid, 55, was quoted as saying. "From 1980 to 1991, when I was working with MAS, there was never a day that we did not chat and catch up." Malaysia Airlines has said Zaharie, a Malaysian, joined the carrier in 1981 and had accumulated 18,365 flying hours. His co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, also from Malaysia and aged 27, joined in 2007 and had 2,763 flying hours. 08:12 GMT - Broken wing tip - Malaysia Airlines says the plane that disappeared suffered a broken wing tip in 2012 but was fully repaired and cleared to fly. "The aircraft had a clipped wing tip. A portion, possibly a metre (1.1 yard) of the wing tip, was torn," Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya told reporters. "It was repaired by Boeing and cleared by Boeing and was approved by various authorities. It was safe to fly." 08:03 GMT - All informed - Malaysia Airlines spokesman Ignatius Ong tells a press conference in Beijing that all next of kin have now been informed and each has been offered the option to travel to Kuala Lumpur. They have also all been told to "expect the worst." 07:59 GMT - Another passport - Chinese state media is reporting that a Chinese person whose passport number is among those listed for passengers aboard the missing flight did not in fact board the plane. According to the Xinhua news agency the person, a resident of Fujian province in eastern China, has no departure record and is still in Fujian. Although the passport number is the same, the name listed by Malaysia Airlines for the passenger is, it says, adding the owner says he has never lost his passport. 07:47 GMT - Expanded search - Malaysian authorities have expanded their search for wreckage to the country's west coast, and asked for help from Indonesia. Searches so far had concentrated on waters to the country's east, in the South China Sea. 07:31 GMT - UN message - A message posted on Twitter by the office of the UN spokesperson, says "(UN Secretary General) Ban Ki-moon deeply saddened by death of so many people in #MalaysiaAirlines crash. He sends condolences to all bereaved families." 07:17 GMT - Putrajaya - Elsewhere another AFP photographer says dozens of family members and relatives of those onboard, looking somber, have been taken to a hotel in the administrative capital of Putrajaya to stay there until there is more news on the aircraft. They were earlier visited by Malaysian prime minister's wife, Rosmah Mansor, who offered them support. Malaysia Airlines has told them it is ready to fly them to near wherever the wreckage may be found, while Malaysian authorities have also offered to help those without valid passports to get passports so they can fly out. 07:14 GMT - Prayers - An AFP photographer says Buddhist monks are chanting prayers for the safety of those onboard the missing plane, in the departurte hall of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. 07:06 GMT - Military activity - Colleague Catherine Barton reports considerable activity at the Vietnamese military airport at Ho Chi Minh City, where an AFP news team is waiting to board a military AN26 plane. An amphibious helicopter transfered from Vietnam's deep sea port Cam Ranh for the search and rescue mission, has just landed, while soldiers can be seen moving equipment. The AN26 the team are waiting to get on is also full of life jackets and other rescue equipment 06:57 GMT - Speculation - Not all the messages are of sympathy, with some Chinese social media users speculating the plane could have been hijacked, noting the incident comes a week after a brutal knife attack in the southwest city of Kunming that both Beijing and Washington have described as an act of terror. "What on earth is happening to China in 2014? First there's the Kunming incident, then a disappearing aircraft. Was it directed at Chinese people? I'm beginning to think more and more that this is terrorism," writes one Sina Weibo user. 06:53 GMT - Sympathy - With the bulk of the passengers coming from China, the country's social media is filled with messages of sympathy. One widely circulated post on China's hugely popular messaging app WeChat reads: "MH370, we hope the radar can see you. If you copy, keep flying at your current height until you reach your destination. "We'll clear the way for you. Everybody is more than happy to let you be the first to land. "The sky is clear, with temperature in Beijing at five degrees Celsius, a little bit cold. Please wear your coats to keep warm. "Remember to hug your family and friends after you disembark. They love you, they really do." Turn-back? 06:36 GMT - "Puzzled" - Malaysian Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya says the plane's systems would have set off alarm bells if it turned back. "When there is an air turn-back the pilot would be unable to proceed as planned," he says, adding authorities are "quite puzzled" over the situation. 06:13 GMT - Cause - On the possible cause of the incident, Dunleavy says the airline "cannot make any assumptions about the root cause until we locate the aircraft." "We will not know until we find the aircraft and find the black box." Where the stolen passports are concerned he says the "airline itself cannot validate a passport we just need to check that when we see a passport it doesn't look like it's been forged, and it's got a legitimate visa." "Airlines don't have access to national databases about passports, that would be a government investigation." 06:09 GMT - Airline defended - Hugh Dunleavy, commercial director for Malaysia Airlines, is speaking to reporters in Beijing and defending its response to the crisis which has come under attack from distraught relatives. He says the airline has brought 92 people trained in dealing with stressful situations to Beijing. "We came here as soon as we could. Even as we speak now we have not been able to locate the aircraft, so you can imagine four or five hours into the event you are much less certain of the information." The airline will take relatives of the passengers to Malaysia, he said. "It's a decision for the families, if they want to go to Malaysia to be closer to the operations of the search and rescue activities we will take them there." "The earliest they will depart will be tomorrow, before they can depart we've got to make sure they've got passports and visas." 06:06 GMT - Emotional scenes - Tom Hancock in Beijing reports emotional scenes at the Lido Hotel, where relatives continue to arrive from across China, hugging their loved ones, with some crying. 06:02 GMT - Turned back - Malaysia's air force chief, General Rodzali Daud, citing radar data, says authorities are looking into the "possibility" the plane had attempted to turn back. "There is a distinct possibility the airplane did a turn-back, deviating from the course." "One of the possibilities is that it was returning to Kuala Lumpur." 06:01 GMT - Summary - As the search continues a quick summary of events in the last few hours: Malaysia has launched a terror probe and is investigating four people as it emerges at least two passengers boarded using stolen European passports. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is sending agents and technical experts to assist the probe. Relatives of the 153 Chinese nationals on board, now camped out at the main international airport in Beijing, bemoan the lack of news. Vietnamese boats reached the scene of two large oil slicks detected overnight but found no sign of the plane, while the search area has been expanded to 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 square miles.) However, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman of Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation says he cannot "confirm" the existence of the oil slicks. Malaysia Airlines says it is "fearing for the worst," and urged "all Malaysians and people around the world to pray for flight MH370." China, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore have all sent vessels and aircraft and the US Navy has sent a surveillance plane and a destroyer carrying two helicopters. 05:45 GMT - Bigger slick - An unanmed Vietnamese military official at the Ho Chi Minh City military air base, who is helping to co-ordinate search efforts, says the oil slick "was bigger and clearer today." "The weather is good this morning so search and rescue teams saw the oil more clearly. But they didn't see anything else," says the officer, who was not on the plane but had received reports from his staff. 05:34 GMT - Recovery specialist - Malaysia Airlines says it "is continuously working with the authorities in providing assistance. In fearing for the worst, a disaster recovery management specialist from Atlanta, USA will be assisting Malaysia Airlines in this crucial time." 05:28 GMT - Search area - The search area has been expanded to 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 square miles), Vietnam's Civil Aviation Department says. 05:24 GMT - International effort - The plane's disappearance has triggered a search effort involving vessels from several nations with rival maritime claims in the tense South China Sea. China, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore threw vessels and aircraft into the effort. The United States also dispatched a destroyer, with two helicopters aboard, and a surveillance plane. 05:22 GMT - Oil slicks - During the initial search on Saturday Vietnam's military said two oil slicks had been spotted, but no debris. "Two of our aircraft sighted two oil slicks around 15 to 20 kilometres (10-12 miles) long, running parallel, around 500 metres apart from each other," the Vietnam army's deputy chief-of-staff, Vo Van Tuan, told state-run VTV. "We are not certain where these two oil slicks may have come from so we have sent Vietnamese ships to the area." "I think the two oil slicks are very likely linked to the missing plane," Vice-Admiral Ngo Van Phat, who is helping to direct the search mission, told AFP. 05:18 GMT - Press - No sooner had relatives appeared at the Lido Hotel's restaurant than some members of the press hovered over their tables, even putting recorders on the table to try and tape conversations. 05:14 GMT - Hotel lunch - My colleague Tom Hancock Lido Hotel in Beijing where relatives are gathered, says some relatives have left their rooms to claim a buffet lunch at the hotel's restaurant. A woman apparently in her twenties, wearing a bright pink jacket, clutched on to an elder woman's arm, sobbing gently as a hotel staff member assigned them a table. A group of around seven people in bright blue jackets labelled 'special assitance team' are clustered at the entrance to the lunch area. 05:11 GMT - Lieutenant-General and Deputy-Chief General of Staff of Vietnamese Army, Vo Van Tuan, has told my colleague in Hanoi, Le Thang Long, the "biggest challenge for our research is to locate the position of the suspect site, especially during the night." "That's why we have mobilized this morning a boat equipped with radar and equipment which can allow us to inspect under-water zones. I hope this will bring us new discoveries." 05:10 GMT - Passengers - The 153 Chinese passengers aboard the plane included an infant, while 38 Malaysians and seven Indonesians were aboard. Six Australians, five Indians, four French nationals, and three Americans including an infant, were also among those listed and the Dutch Foreign Ministry said it believed one Dutch passenger was on the plane. 05:06 GMT - Relatives mourn - For the relatives of the 227 passengers -- including 153 Chinese nationals -- and 12 crew, there is little comfort. Earlier Sunday the airline admitted: "It has been more than 24 hours since we last heard from MH370 at 1:30 am. The search and rescue team is yet to determine the whereabouts of the Boeing 777-200 aircraft." It then urged "all Malaysians and people around the world to pray for flight MH370." 04:55 GMT - Search goes on - Rescuers are still hunting for the whereabouts of the twin-engine plane which mysteriously disappeared from radar screens somewhere between Malaysia's east coast and southern Vietnam. Flight MH370 sent no distress signal or reports of rough weather, or other signs of trouble, and both Malaysia's national carrier and the Boeing 777-200 model used on the route are known for their solid safety records. But about one hour into the flight, it dropped from radar screens. Adding to the mystery are the two passengers who appear to have been using stolen EU passports. An Austrian, named in reports as Christian Kozel, had his passport pinched in Thailand in 2012, while Italian Luigi Maraldi, 37, had his stolen last year, also in Thailand, officials and sources have said. Despite their names being on the passenger manifest, neither man was on the flight. FBI join investigation 04:52 GMT - US built - The US National Transportation Safety Board could also send a team to join the investigation because the plane was built in the US by Boeing, according to the FBI official. 04:50 GMT - Passports - The stolen passports used by two passengers on the plane are believed to have come from an Italian and an Austrian. But a Department of Homeland Security official told the media that "just because they were stolen doesn't mean the travelers were terrorists. They could have been nothing more than thieves. Or they could have simply bought the passports on the black market." 04:48 GMT - Video scan - The FBI official stressed there was "no evidence" of terrorism thus far, but added FBI personnel will help review video from the Kuala Lumpur airport for images of passengers at the ticket counter, security sections and the boarding area. The agents can then use counterterrorism technology to find any possible matches with known members of Al-Qaeda or other terror groups. 04:46 GMT - FBI involved - Earlier US media reported the FBI is sending agents and technical experts to assist in the investigation of the missing plane that had several Americans aboard. US officials told The Los Angeles Times they are trying to determine whether there was any terror link to what caused Flight 370 to go missing as it carried 239 people from Kuala Lumpur toward Beijing. "But so far, what happened is a mystery," an official told the newspaper. 04:41 GMT - Terror link - The minister says Malaysia is probing "four names" over airline security fears. 04:33 GMT - WELCOME TO AFP's LIVE REPORT as Malaysia looks at a possible terror link in the disappearance of an airliner believed to have gone down in the sea with 239 people aboard. The country's transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, says Malaysian security agencies are investigating after it was discovered that two passengers may have boarded missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 using stolen passports, raising fears of potential terrorism. "At the same time our own intelligence have been activated, and of course, the counterterrorism units... from all the relevant countries have been informed."