Rome, March 8 (IANS): Italian passenger Luigi Maraldi, who was thought to be on the missing Malaysian Airlines aircraft, is not in the aircraft as his passport was stolen in Thailand last August, local investigators announced Saturday.
The 37-year-old Italian man's name was on the boarding list furnished by Malaysia Airlines which reported that its flight MH 370 carrying 239 people to Beijing had lost contact with air traffic control about two hours after leaving Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur early Saturday.
Maraldi phoned to his father Walter, a resident in the Italian city of Cesena, early Saturday morning to tell him that he was not on the missing plane but safely in Thailand, Xinhua cited his father as telling the Italian media.
Italy's foreign ministry confirmed Saturday that Maraldi was not on board the missing plane.