The fate of the missing Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared with 239 people aboard remained a mystery Monday as the latest possible clues to the plane's whereabouts were discounted, authorities said.
Tests on two oil slicks off the coast of Vietnam revealed no connection to the flight, investigators said. One piece of floating, yellow debris turned out to be moss-covered trash; another piece seen from the air Sunday night could not be located Monday.
Malaysia's civil aviation head, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, speaking to reporters in Kuala Lumpur Monday, said that investigators have so far not found anything that could be part of the missing plane.
Vietnam sent helicopters to investigate the floating "yellow object" that had been suspected of being a life raft from flight MH370 bound for Beijing. Separately, six planes and seven ships from Vietnam have so far been unable to find an object spotted by a low-flying plane on Sunday afternoon, said Doan Huu Gia, the chief of Vietnam's search and rescue coordination center.
Vietnamese officials had said they believe the object is one of the plane's doors, according to local news media reports.
Vietnam civil administration chief Pham Viet Dung said search teams from several countries sent boats to the area about 56 miles south of Tho Chu island, in an area where an oil slick was spotted Saturday. Malaysian maritime officials found some oil slicks in the South China Sea and sent a sample to a lab to see if the oil came from the plane, but it did not.
Flight MH370 vanished early Saturday, less than two hours into a scheduled six-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur. A Malaysian official said Sunday the plane may have tried to return before it dropped off air controller screens, apparently off the coast of Vietnam.
Authorities are investigating the possibility of terrorism after discovering that two passengers apparently had been flying with stolen passports. Interpol, the France-based international policing agency, confirmed Sunday that the Italian and Austrian passports had been entered into its database after they were reported stolen in 2012 and 2013.
"Whilst it is too soon to speculate about any connection between these stolen passports and the missing plane, it is clearly of great concern that any passenger was able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in Interpol's databases," said Interpol Secretary-General Ronald Noble.
Thai police and Interpol questioned the proprietors of a travel agency in the resort town of Pattaya that sold one-way tickets to two men now known to have been traveling on flight MH370 using stolen passports.
There has been no indication that the two men had anything to do with the tragedy, but the thefts of the passports fueled speculation of foul play, terrorism or a hijacking gone wrong. Malaysia has shared their details with Chinese and American intelligence agencies.
Malaysia's police chief was quoted by local media as saying that one of the men had been identified. Civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman didn't confirm this, but said they were of "non-Asian" appearance.
Air force chief Rodzali Daud said military radar indicated the flight "may have made a turn back," but he did not say how far it got. "We are trying to make sense of this," Daud said.
Dozens of ships and aircraft have failed to find any piece of the missing Boeing 777 as investigators pursue "every angle" to explain its disappearance, including hijacking, Malaysia's civil aviation chief said Monday.
The U.S. Navy has provided the USS Pinckney, a guided-missile destroyer that carries two MH-60R helicopters, and a P-3C Orion with long-range search, radar and communications capabilities.
An international team is investigating the crash. American experts include accident investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and technical experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing, the NTSB said in a statement.
Reuters, citing what it called a senior source involved in the investigation, said the probe is focusing on the possibility that the plane disintegrated in the air.
"The fact that we are unable to find any debris so far appears to indicate that the aircraft is likely to have disintegrated at around 35,000 feet," said the source, who is involved in the investigations in Malaysia.
Hundreds of distraught relatives gathered in a hotel in Beijing on Monday, waiting to be flown to Malaysia. Of the 227 passengers, two-thirds were Chinese. There were also 38 passengers and 12 crew members from Malaysia, and others from elsewhere in Asia, Europe and North America, including three Americans.
MacLeod reported from Beijing, Maresca from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Contributing: John Bacon; Associated Press
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