Police in Malaysia have also viewed CCTV footage of the passengers on the flight, specifically looking for images of two men listed as Italian Luigi Maraldi and Austrian Christian Kozel.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Mr Maraldi, 37, was surprised to see his name on the passenger manifest because he was in fact holidaying in Thailand.
He posted on Facebook yesterday, “Now I have learned that [on] the plane [that] disappeared in Malaysia, there was an Italian named Luigi Maraldi [on board]. In telling you that is not me, I want to express my closeness to the family."
On an earlier trip to Phuket in August last year Mr Maraldi had his passport stolen from a car rental agency, the Herald reported.
Other media reports quoted Austrian authorities saying Mr Kozel had his passport stolen in the same part of Phuket 18 months earlier.
The Italian honorary consul in Phuket Francesco Pensato confirmed Mr Maraldi is in Phuket and Italian authorities are checking whether the man on the plane may have been a different man with the same name and date of birth, the Herald reported.
The South China Morning Post said Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Weiss confirmed that a name listed on the manifest matched that of an Austrian passport reported stolen two years ago in Phuket. Weiss would not confirm the identity, although Britain’s Daily Mirror website named him as Christian Kozel, aged 30.