Head guy for Malaysia Airlines said all of them had visas and China had the info.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/malaysia-airlines-jet-may-have-turned-back-before-vanishing-1.2565649
“Having an onward reservation from Beijing would have meant the pair, as holders of EU passports, would not have needed a visa for China. Beyond that, it was unclear whether this had any possible implications for the investigation.
Hmmm. I wonder if that’s just a CYA statement, though, because surely, unless Malaysian or Chinese immigration services have a mole, the stolen passports would have turned up during the visa process.
I had my passport stolen in Europe years ago. They issue you another one with a different number, so if those old numbers suddenly come back into use, it pops up immediately. I did read that possibly the Malaysian security authorities didn’t subscribe to the Interpol service that supplies the database of stolen numbers.