"Not so, I believe. I believe they were checked in but it wasn't confirmed the bags were loaded. They could have been connecting passengers from another flight booked through and boarding passes issued, but they never made it to the gate. Various possibilities, including late arrival of their inbound connecting flight, would preclude them from boarding and also preclude their bags from being loaded. "
According to The Minister AND the MH Official at an earlier Press Conference, the bags from the missing passengers were on board but were located and offloaded before departure. I'm not suggesting that this is necessarily significant, just another item to check, especially if the passengers never claimed their checked bags after departure. We don't know.