THE AIRLINER – AT 10:20 A.M. ET:  They still haven't found the wreckage of that Malaysian airliner that went down Friday with 239 people on board.  The mystery deepens with reports that several passengers were traveling with stolen passports.  That fact, and the fact that there was no distress call from the cockpit have raised speculation – we stress that it is speculation – that a terrorist action on board may have brought down the plane.  But until they find it, no one will know.  From Fox:

Interpol says no country checked its database for information about stolen passports that were used to board the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared with 239 people on board Saturday less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, bound for Beijing.

In a sharply worded criticism of shortcomings of national passport controls, the Lyon, France-based international police body said information about the thefts of an Austrian passport in 2012 and an Italian passport last year was entered into its database after they were stolen in Thailand.

Interpol said in a statement it was investigating all other passports used to board Flight MH 370 and was working to determine the "true identities" of the passengers who used the stolen passports.

The statement came as officials said finding the wreckage of the flight is “the utmost priority."

“There is still no sign of the aircraft,” Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of the Department of Civil Aviation, said during a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Rahman said that the search area has been increased to 50 nautical miles, from 20, and includes 34 aircraft and 40 ships. Aircraft are conducting 12-hour searches, until sundown, while ships continue the search through the night.

COMMENT:  Aviation experts are recalling EgyptAir flight 990, which crashed into the Atlantic off Nantucket in 1999, with a loss of 217 people.  Our National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the plane had been intentionally crashed by its first officer, although the Board could determine no specific motive.  The officer was heard on the voice cockpit recorder to be mumbling Muslim prayers as he put the airliner into a dive. 

But we are speculating.  We must wait for answers, if they ever come.

March 9,  2014