MH370 Passengers/Persons of Interest
Several passengers on flight MH370 are 'persons of interest'. Their names and details will be linked below:-
1. Passengers with stolen passports
Two passengers have been confirmed as using stolen passports to board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. (There were rumours of another two persons but that was not confirmed.)
The two young Iranian men with stolen passports were:-
- Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad age 19 used an Austrian passport; intended to travel from Beijing to Frankfurt, where his mother was living; and was seated in Row 30 at 30C.
- Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza age 30 used an Italian passport; intended to travel from Beijing to Copenhagen; and was seated in Row 34 at 34C.
An article about the two friends is linked here: Pouria MEHRDAD and Delavar MOHAMMADREZA.
2. Thirteen Malaysia Airlines Staff
It is well documented that there were 12 Crew on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Two Flight Crew and ten Cabin Crew. All were Malaysian.
However, on the first anniversary of the loss of MH370, on Sunday, 8 March 2015, at a gathering of around 500 MAS employees and 100 family members of the missing crew, the Chairman Tan Sri Md Nor Yusof paid tribute to the 13 missing crew members.
Md Nor paid tribute to the 13 missing crew members namely Zaharie Ahmad Shah, Fariq Abdul Hamid, Andrew Nari, Foong Wai Yueng, Goh Sock Lay, Junaidi Mohd Kassim, Liang Yu Yang, Mohd Hazrin Mohd Hasnan, Ng Yar Chien, Patrick Francis Gomez, Tan Size Hiang, Tan Ser Kuin and Wan Said Wan Ismail.
(Emphasis added)
The 'extra' person is listed above as Liang Yu Yang, but the passenger manifests do not have that exact name. The reason, however, is simple - the media report has incorrectly spelled part of the name.
The 'extra' person was employed by MASKargo, Liang Lu Yang, a Chinese national returning to Beijing where he worked as a Cargo Sales Officer.
3. Mr Qiwei Zhao
As family, friends, police and other authorities tried to establish who was onboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on Saturday, 8 March 2014 various anomalies were noted. The two Iranians, mentioned above, were among the first to be identified as not being the persons named in the Passenger Manifest. Another anomaly was publicised in China and mentioned on various blog and discussion sites, but rarely mentioned by mainstream Western media. The passport number listed for a passenger ZHAO QIWEI is held by a person who was not on the aircraft.
Here is an extract from the Advance Passenger Information released at Beijing on Saturday, 8 March 2014:-
The passport number is G25634718.
And here is an image published by china.org.cn on Sunday, 9 March 2014:-
The accompanying text reads:-
The passport number of a Fujian native surnamed Yu matches that of a passenger named Zhao Qiwei, who was reported on board the missing MH370. According to the Straits City Daily, a newspaper in Fujian Province, Yu is still in his hometown, Fuqing, Fujian Province. According to Yu, he has never lost his passport, nor has he ever used it since it was issued in 2007.
The most likely explanation is that Malaysia Airlines or other staff at KLIA incorrectly transcribed the data from Mr Zhao's passport.
ZHAO Qiwei, aged 37, was seated in Row 18 at 18D. Next to him in seat 18E was a female passenger ZHANG Xiaolei aged 32. And in seat 18F was a 3 year old female child ZHAO Yingxin.
This seating looks like a family of three travelling together, with the child having the father's family-name. The passport number issue is simply evidence of a mistake somewhere.