PHOTO: A patrol vessel with the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency searches for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane off Tok Bali Beach in Kelantan, Malaysia, March 9, 2014. — One of the passengers who used a stolen passport to board the missing Malaysia Airlines passenger jet was a dark-skinned man, a Malaysian official indicated. The investigation into Friday’s disappearance of the jetliner with 239 passengers and crew has centered so far around the fact that two passengers used passports stolen from an Austrian and an Italian.

The plane which left Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was headed for Beijing. Three of the passengers, one adult and two children, were American. Malaysia’s Civil Aviation Chief Azaharuddin Abdul Rahman said officials had reviewed surveillance tape of the plane’s boarding "from check-in right to departure. I can confirm that all security protocols had been complied with," he said.

When asked about the two men who used the stolen passports, Rahman replied, "We confirmed now they are not Asian looking males." When pressed to describe them, he said, "Do you know a footballer by the name of Bartoli? Do you know what he looks like?" Reporters corrected him asking, "Mario Balotelli?" and asked whether the man with the stolen passport was black. Balotelli, who is black, is an Italian soccer player. "Yes," Rahman replied. Rahman refused to further describe the two men. Rahman also indicated that investigators were not any closer to determining what happened to the airliner.[…]