Iranian Teenager Pouria Nour Mohammadi on Missing Malaysian Flight

According to Malaysian authorities, the two passengers travelling with stolen passports on missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 were Iranian.

On Tuesday March 11^th, Malaysian Police Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters that one of the men was Pouria Nour Mohammadi, a 19-year-old Iranian who had been on his way to immigrate to Germany.

Although Malaysian authorities named him as Pouria Nour Mohamad, his actual name is Pouria Nour Mohammadi.  A Facebook registered under the name Pouria NM is still accessible; recent photos and updates reveal details of the days leading up to his departure from Kuala Lumpur, headed towards Beijing.

According to Pouria’s page, he left an unknown location – probably Iran – to travel to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, February 27^th.

On February 24^th, he wrote on Facebook that because of “some problems, I am going to deactivate my account... forgive me my friends ...maybe never...”. His update ended with a mood emoticon that said: “feeling bad”.

On February 27^th, Pouria left this message on his page: “Guys, please pray for me tonight...God help me. Love you all.” This time, he used the emoticon “feeling blessed”. Some hours later, on February 28^th, he wrote on his wall: “Thank you, those who pray for me, I arrived safe and sound.” – “Feeling excited”. He set his location at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Some of his family and friends commented on this post, expressing their excitement and happiness.

But one of his friends, Mohsen, showed his surprise: “What are you doing in Kuala Lumpur?” Pouria responded with an emoticon and wrote, “Dear Mohsen, I left Iran”. Pouria’s mother commented: “Rest for some days and then you will be home, have fun.”

According to the information available on Facebook, Pouria’s mother and his younger brother live in Germany. After travelling to Kuala Lumpur, he was going to join them.

He was in Kuala Lumpur from February 28^th to March 8^th and then boarded Flight MH370 to Beijing. During this time he published three photos of himself at tourist attractions around Kuala Lumpur, on March 4^th and 6^th. One of these photos showed him in front of Petronas Towers. During this time, family members, including his mother and younger brother, commented that he should take care of himself and that they were waiting for him.

Pouria’s last Facebook post showed a photo of him in front of a department store, with two sports cars nearby. Then he disappeared, along with 238 other passengers and crew.After more than three days, it is still not known what happened to Pouria, his fellow passengers and the crew. Hope that they will be found is quickly fading. 

It is not known why Pouria and the other Iranian who boarded the flight to Beijing were traveling on stolen passports. Following the flight to China, both were scheduled to travel to Europe.

Initially, when news broke that two passengers had used stolen passports to board the flight, there was widespread fear that terrorism was involved. But on Tuesday, Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar announced that “the missing Iranian passenger was not a terrorist”, confirming that he did not belong to any terror outfit and it seems that he was seeking asylum in Germany. Pouria’s mother was waiting for him in Frankfurt and contacted the Malaysian Police after news about the missing plane emerged.

The plane, a Malaysian Airlines craft, was a Boeing 777 and left from Kuala Lumpur to fly to Beijing on March 8^th.  After leaving Malaysian airspace, it disappeared from radar somewhere near the Vietnam coast. Prior to its disappearance, the pilot did not issue any distress signals or warn of an emergency.