re: #7 Weet

Looks to me like the tickets went from Kuala Lumpur to Peking and then on the Amsterdam. Seems that throws a wrench into thinking this was terrorism — they apparently were going on to Amsterdam.

Having just read through the thread on this at one of the aviation forums I sometimes pop in at, apparently this may be because transiting through Beijing is one of the few ways to fly to the PRC without requiring a visa first, if you have a connecting flight with 72 hours.

This may apply only to passport holders from particular countries and for sure applies to only a few cities in China, but Beijing being one of them (and the destination) you sort of go hmmm…