2 airlines to check passports on Interpol database

LYON, France (AP) — Interpol is allowing two airlines to check passenger passports against its vast database of lost and stolen travel documents — in a test project aimed to let private sector companies help authorities crack down on criminals who travel with fake documents, the police organization’s leader said Tuesday.

It’s not known whether stolen passports had to do with Saturday’s disappearance of a Boeing 777 bound from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing with 239 people on board. But Interpol on Tuesday released an image of two Iranians who used valid Iranian passports to get to Malaysia, then boarded the flight with stolen European passports.