The two suspects who boarded the flight on missing passports have been identified by officials and are said to be of “non-Asian” appearance. Malaysia’s civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said that CCTV images of the passengers boarding the flight showed that that one, or both, of the men resembled the black Italian footballer Mario Balotelli. Meanwhile, a Thai travel agent who booked them on to the plane told the FT that the tickets were arranged with an “Iranian contact” on behalf of clients looking for cheap tickets to Europe.