MIT Aviation Expert Says Terrorism Is Possible In Malaysian Air Crash But It's Too Early To Tell

BOSTON (CBS) – The U.S. Navy has joined in the search for the Malaysian airline jet that dropped off of radar early Saturday morning.

A search plane spotted what might be the first debris from the plane that was carrying 239 people.

MIT Professor John Hansman, an internationally recognized aviation expert, told WBZ-TV's Jim Smith it's too early to make a judgment on what went wrong.

"There was no broadcast from the airplance, so presumably it happened fairly quickly," Hansman said. "Terrorism or an in-flight bomb could explain the fact that there was no communication, but there are many other causes that could explain that, too."

Interpol has confirmed it knew that two people who bought tickets on Malaysian Air 370 had stolen passports but no one checked the databases before the plane took off.

There is now evidence the two people who used stolen passports to board the flight bought their seats together. Investigators are also looking into the possibility that more passengers may have used bogus passports.

New clues have been coming in and the latest word is the plane may have tried to turn around and reverse course before the crash.

Hansman said recovering the recording devices onboard the plane is key to learning what happened.

"Trying to get the flight data recorder, the black box and the cockpit voice recorder would be the highest priority," he said.

The black boxes send out signals on their location, but not indefinitely.

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