WH: ‘Too early’ to blame terrorism for missing jet

White House officials said Sunday that it was “too early” to consider terrorism as a potential cause of a missing flight, despite reports of at least two of the jet’s passengers traveling on stolen passports.

White House Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that it premature to speculate about potential causes of the presumed jet crash.

“It’s too soon to tell what happened, why it happened,” Blinken said. “But what we’ve done is this…we’ve made available the FBI, the National Transportation Safety Board and other experts to aid in the investigation to determine what the cause was, but right now it’s just too early to tell what the cause was.”

{mosads}The flight at issue is a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 that disappeared from air traffic control radars in Vietnam shortly after departing Kuala Lumpur for a flight to Beijing on Friday night. The airplane was carrying 239 passengers and crewmembers, including at least three people that State Department officials have said were American citizens.

Blinken said the White House was concerned about the reports that have emerged about the missing Malyasia Airlines’ flight, including the passport issues, but he said it was still early in the investigation.

“I’ve seen these reports about the passports and we’re looking into that, but we don’t have anything to confirm yet,” he said.

“The reports raise questions and concerns, and that’s exactly why we’re looking into them, but right now it would be premature to speculate, we just don’t have the facts yet,” the deputy national security advisor continued.