Malaysia discounts theory that missing plane was a terrorist attack target - sources

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Sources from both the US and the European governments have told Reuters that Malaysian investigators were skeptical over claims that the missing airplane was a target of a purported terrorist attack. The Voice of America had said that Malaysian Airline Flight 370 has been missing since Saturday. VOA said the plane disappeared an hour after its scheduled takeoff from an airport at Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

All three concerned governments claimed to have arrived at a decision and ruled out the theory that the airplane was intentionally taken down by violent forces. One of the reasons that the governments have seen as a valid point to lean away from the terrorist attack theory was that electronic evidence showed that the airplane could have rerouted back to Kuala Lumpur prior to its disappearance.

However, US sources clarified to Reuters that Malaysian authorities have attributed to the plane's accident to mechanical or piloting problems.

The terrorist attack theory was one of the things explored by authorities and was further amplified when Interpol confirmed the use of stolen passports by two of Malaysian Airline Flight 370's passengers, VOA said. The chief Malaysian investigator also had said that the two men posing as the stolen identities were not Asian in appearance.

Malaysia's Civil Aviation Authority head, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, has said on Monday that its massive air and sea search failed to find a trace of the airplane that left forty minutes past 12 midnight or the plane's 239 passengers.

Asia managing editor Greg Waldron of Flightglobal, whose magazine is a publication for the aviation sector, explains the difficulties of authorities locating the purported remains of the airplane to VOA and said, "The wreckage is very unlikely to show up on radar, and it is also very unlikely to show in infra red, because it has the same temperature as the surface. So in terms of finding pieces of the aircraft, if indeed these pieces of aircraft are floating around in the sea, you are really relying on people's eyeballs. And also the wreckage if there is wreckage has had days to spread. And this could make it more challenging to locate."

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Malaysian Airline Flight 370 update
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