The group, none of whom have touched their bank accounts since, told family and friends they were headed for Brazil.
Four days later, Tam Airlines domestic flight 3054 from Porto Alegre to Sao Paulo crashed at Sao Paulo Airport, killing 181 passengers, six flight crew and 12 people on the ground.
The plane careered off the end of the runway, cleared a highway bordering the inner-city airport, slammed into a fuel depot and burst into flames.
The resulting heat was so intense that more than 70 of the bodies were so badly burnt they were either never recovered or could not be identified.
_The West Australian _understands the WA Police missing persons squad has been liaising with Brazilian authorities in an effort to determine whether the missing group were among the victims.
While the flight's passenger manifest is publicly available, and does not contain the names of any of the group, the issue has been complicated by Mr Felton's history of forging identity documents.