Malaysia Airlines Connected To ISIS? After MH370, Security Guard Arrested For Possible Islamic State Ties

An employee of the embattled Malaysia Airlines was recently arrested for having suspected ties to the Islamic State group, the New Paper reported Wednesday. Authorities took the 37-year-old Indonesian man, whose name has not yet publicly released, and two others into custody after ISIS-related raids in Kuala Lumpur and Pahang last week.

The Malaysia Airlines staffer had been working as a security guard at the company, which has been rocked by two high-profile plane accidents in recent years. He had an airsoft gun and three books in the "Tarbiyah Jihadiyyah" series, which covers themes like eating halal, advice for Muslim youth, sacrifice and patience in worship, according to the Star Online.

"He had connections to Malaysian ISIS militants fighting in Syria, as we also detected that he went to Turkey in 2013," police inspector-general Khalid Abu Bakar said in a news release. "We discovered that the suspect planned to take his wife with him to Syria to join ISIS there."

Malaysia Airlines confirmed to Channel NewsAsia only that an officer had been contacted by authorities "to assist in an investigation." "The airline views the matter seriously and has taken immediate measures to ensure that the safety and security of its operations are not compromised," the company added.

Malaysia Airlines was the carrier for MH370, a Boeing 777 with 239 people on board that disappeared without a trace in March 2014. It also owned MH17, which was carrying 298 people when pro-Russian-separatists hit it with a missile over Ukraine in July 2014.

Though investigators still don't entirely know what happened to MH370, they almost immediately distanced themselves from explanations involving terrorism. Two passengers were traveling on stolen passports, but they were found to be Iranians simply seeking asylum.

Wednesday's news followed another would-be link between ISIS and Malaysia Airlines from 2015. In that incident, Lizard Squad hackers compromised Malaysia Airlines' website and changed some of its webpages to show messages reading "ISIS will prevail," "Hacked by Cyber Caliphate" and "404 - Plane Not Found," according to the Guardian.