The US' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is deploying agents and technical experts to assist in investigation of Malaysia Airlines' (MAS) flight MH370 that went missing yesterday, said several US media reports.
 
The move comes following revelation that at least two imposters boarded the Boeing 777-200 from Kuala Lumpur with stolen passports, according to Los Angeles Times .
 
The daily quoted an unnamed FBI official as that three Americans on the flight, including a possible fourth which is an infant, gives the US cause to join the probe.
 
"This gives us entree (to the case)," he was quoted as saying.
 
The report added that US officials are looking whether the flight disappearance has links to terrorism, but said this would be the case with any flight incidences until proven otherwise.
 
However, counter-terrorism officials in the US have stressed that stolen passports does not necessarily mean an act of terrorism.
 
“There is no indication this is a terrorist attack; stolen passports are certainly not indicative of a terrorist attack,” a senior counter terrorism official was quoted by the daily as saying.

Passports lost in Thailand

The MH370 passenger manifest released by Malaysia Airlines after its plane went missing off the Vietnamese coast with 227 passengers and 12 crew included the names of Christian Kozel, 30, from Austria, and Luigi Maraldi, 37, from Italy.

Both the Austrian and Italian foreign ministries have established the two respectively had their passports stolen in Thailand over the last two years.

According to Reuters , a foreign ministry spokesman in Vienna said of the Austrian, "Our embassy got the information that there was an Austrian on board.

"That was the passenger list from Malaysia Airlines. Our system came back with a note that this is a stolen passport."  

Austrian police had found the man safe at home. The passport was stolen two years ago while he was travelling in Thailand, the spokesman said.  

The foreign ministry in Rome said no Italian was on the plane either, despite the inclusion of Maraldi's name on the list.

His mother, Renata Lucchi, told Reuters his passport was lost, presumed stolen, in Thailand in 2013.

'Growing suspicions'

The mystery deepened this morning after Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein confirmed at least two more imposters boarded the plane with passports that were not their own, bringing the total of suspicious passengers to four.

US and European security officials so far say that there was no proof of any terrorist link and there could be other explanations for the use of stolen passports.  

Malaysia Airlines head Ahmad Jauhari Yahya when asked yesterday if this could indicate possible hijacking, he said that MAS and the authorities are " not ruling anything out ".

However, UK's The Sunday Times today reported growing suspicions that the fake passports could indicate the work of terrorists.

"Officially there was no word on the cause of the crash, but a well-informed source in Beijing said suspicions of a terrorist act were growing among Chinese government and police officials.

"Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, yesterday ordered what the state news agency Xinhua called 'emergency measures and enhanced security to assure the absolute safety' of civil aviation," reported the UK daily on its website.

In the latest development, Bernama today reported that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is deploying a team of agents and technical experts to assist in investigations.

The US official was quoted as saying that the FBI was not ruling out terrorism or any other issue as a possible cause in the jetliner's disappearance.

Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the government is probing the cases of falsified passports.

"On the false passports, all investigation agencies at home and aborad are being mobilised.

"Malaysia is not discounting any possibilities in this investigation," he said in a posting on the Information Department's Facebook .