KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Background checks on all but three of the 239 passengers and crew on board a missing Malaysia Airlines jet produced no "information of significance", Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Wednesday (March 19th), AFP reported.

"We have received passengers' background checks from all countries apart from Ukraine and Russia," Hishammuddin told reporters at a daily briefing. He also said the Maldives air force chief informed him reports of locals seeing a "low-flying jumbo jet" were "not true".

Maldives police began investigating Tuesday after Haveeru reported residents of a remote southern island spotted a large white plane with red stripes flying over them on March 8th.

Sri Lanka on Tuesday allowed Malaysia and three other countries to use its air space to conduct search operations.