"It is not conclusive. I'm heading the investigation and nobody is saying that. It's not true. We are looking at the possibility, we're looking at all possibilities. We're doing every profile of the passengers and crew but there is no firm evidence or leads so far," he told the Telegraph.
I wonder if they could just make this shit up since they are not going to write down the name and put it in a safe for record anyway.
There's too much focus on speculation to keep this relevant in a 24/7 news cycle.
"Jane Doe's alleged rapist" or "Witness X claims to have seen"
I do agree with you that 24/7 coverage is excessive, though; wait until sufficient evidence has presented itself and then do your reporting (unfortunately the current media climate isn't very supportive of this).
Given the state of the investigation, it is totally irresponsible to claim a highjacking and also irresponsible to then report it without putting this into context.
Poor relatives. They are now proabably getting their hopes up.