What Happened: At least two passengers on the missing Malaysian Airlines jetliner boarded the plane using stolen passports. The flight, which departed Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing with 239 people aboard, hasn’t been located or heard from in four days. The passports – originally belonging to an Italian and an Austrian – were reported stolen in Thailand during the past two years. While authorities have not blamed the plane’s disappearance on terrorism or foul play, the use of forged documents is raising questions about security standards at international airports.
Why It Matters: Interpol, the world’s largest international police organization, established a Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The Lyon, France based organization makes that list available to its 190 countries, but members aren’t required to systematically check manifests against the database, and airlines don’t have access to it.
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“While all airlines visually screen travel documents presented by their passengers (for validity, visible alterations, forgeries, etc.), they are limited in what they can do,” said Perry Flint, a spokesman for the International Air Transport Association who added that air carriers are already fulfilling their obligations. “Airlines are required by more than 60 states, including China, to provide Advance Passenger Information to border control officials in advance of the flight to enable immigration officials to review passenger information for discrepancies.” Malaysian Airlines is a member of IATA.
“No carrier checks passports against Interpol,” said Jean Medina, a spokeswoman for the industry trade group Airlines for America. “They do not have the ability to do so since Interpol deals exclusively with governments.” In 2013, passengers boarded planes more than a billion times without their passports checked against Interpol’s database.
What It Means for You: Even if no terrorist-link is established in connection with the missing flight, international travelers may soon face increased scrutiny at airports abroad from border control and airline agents. Interpol said that countries such as the U.S., U.K. and U.A.E. are leaders when it comes to consulting the police agency’s list, with each country accessing it millions of times a year, while most other countries fall short. The U.S. also maintains its own watch list.
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