BANGKOK (EJP)—A travel agent in Thailand said that the man who purchased two tickets for travelers who traveled on Malaysia Airlines flight 370 traveling with stolen Italian and Austrian passports was an Iranian identified by police as ‘Kazem Ali.’
The two passengers booked by Ali were headed to Amsterdam from Kuala Lumpur, with Beijing merely a stopover.
Thai Police identified the Iranian ticket-buyer as Kazem Ali.
Search for the plane, which vanished Saturday with 239 people on board, was significantly expanded.
Authorities investigating the plane’s disappearance have not ruled out terrorism.
The travel agent, Benjaporn Krutnait, owner of the Grand Horizon travel agency in Pattaya, told the Financial Times that the Iranian man, who she said was a business contact she knew only as ‘Mr. Ali,’ had initially asked her to book cheap flights to Europe for the pair on March 1. Those tickets expired. “When he contacted her again on Thursday, she rebooked the men on the Malaysia Airlines flight through Beijing because it was the cheapest available,” the report said.
The agent said a friend of Kazem Ali paid for the tickets in cash, and speculated that Ali might have been a middleman, booking tickets for others in exchange for a commission, the British newspaper said.