"It's just up to the will of the country to set it up and do it," Fuentes said.

Interpol's lost-document database was created in 2002, following the September 11, 2001, attacks, to help countries secure their borders. Since then, it has expanded from a few thousand passports and searches to more than 40 million entries and more than 800 million searches per year.

About 60,000 of those 800 million searches yield hits against stolen or lost documents, according to Interpol.

The United States searches the database more 250 million times annually, the United Kingdom more than 120 million times annually and the United Arab Emirates more than 50 million times annually, Interpol said. (Some 300,000 passports are lost or stolen each year in the United States, alone, according to the U.S. Department of State, which collects reports of stolen passports and sends the information to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Interpol.)

The United States routinely checks all inbound and outbound passengers on international flights against the database, said Fuentes.

"If Malaysia Airlines and all airlines worldwide were able to check the passport details of prospective passengers against Interpol's database, then we would not have to speculate whether stolen passports were used by terrorists to board MH 370," said Interpol's Noble.

The Thailand connection

The Austrian and Italian passports were stolen in Thailand in 2017 and 2013, respectively, according to Interpol.

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