MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
A Malaysian police official displays photographs of the two men who boarded the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 using stolen European passports. The man on the left is identified as Pouri Nourmohammadi, 19, while the other is believed to be Delavar Seyedmohammaderza, 29, according to authorities.
Investigators searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight believe it veered off course for more than an hour with its tracking systems apparently disabled before vanishing, according to senior military source.
In the new scenario, Flight MH370 drastically changed its route at a lower altitude, flying over Malaysia’s west coast, over the busy shipping channel of the Strait of Malacca.
Previously, Malaysian authorities have said the Boeing 777 with 239 people aboard disappeared about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur bound for the Chinese capital Beijing.
At the time it was roughly midway between Malaysia's east coast town of Kota Bharu and the southern tip of Vietnam, flying at 35,000 feet.
"It changed course after Kota Bharu and took a lower altitude. It made it into the Malacca Strait," the military official, who has been briefed on investigations, told Reuters.
STRINGER/REUTERS
International school students light candles to pray for passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
A non-military source said the thus-unexplained route was being investigated.
The plane’s mysterious flight path only added more questions as authorities continued searching for some sign of the aircraft.
As planes and ships from a coalition of countries scoured the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea, Interpol released photos of two Iranians who flew on the plane using stolen passports.
The two men, identified as Pouri Nourmohammadi, 19, and Delavar Seyedmohammaderza, 29, traveled to Maylasia using their Iranian passports then switched to stolen Italian and Austrian documents.
Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said Tuesday the latest information about the pair made terrorism a less likely cause of the plane’s baffling disappearance.
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