The Malaysian Insider
A
father of a passenger who was on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370
filed an application with a US court yesterday, seeking 26 kinds of
information and records from the airline and Boeing on the ill-fated
aircraft, reported Bloomberg.
The
request put in by Januari Siregar – father of Indonesian passenger
Firman Chandra Siregar – which was filed in the Illinois state court in
Chicago could be a prelude to the filing of a lawsuit.
It was filed by Chicago-based Ribbeck Law Chartered on behalf of Januari.
The
list of 26 includes data on possible defects in the missing
Boeing-built 777-200 ER or its component parts, the airline’s training
of its crew, and information about its cargo, Bloomberg said.
A
partner of the law firm Monica Kelly was quoted as saying that Januari
is seeking that "possible design and manufacturing defects that may have
contributed to the disaster".
Flight
MH370 vanished from the radar shortly after taking off from the Kuala
Lumpur International Airport en route to Beijing, with 239 people on
board. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had said on Monday that the
plane probably ended up in the southern Indian Ocean, without any
survivors.
Families
in Beijing criticised the Malaysian government for reaching to the
conclusion that the plane had ended up in the Indian Ocean with no
survivors, saying that it was premature as no debris had been found yet.
Najib said that the conclusion was reached based on satellite data from Inmarsat.
The
law firm was reported as saying that the petition seeking evidence is
the same request it had used when it began legal action against Asiana
Airlines Inc. after a crash at the San Francisco International Airport
which killed three people and injured 181 on July 6, reported Bloomberg.
"That’s
usually how we begin the process," Mervin Mateo, a spokesman for the
firm, was quoted as saying yesterday. "We have our own experts doing
their investigation."
"If
the wreckage is not found, there would be little or no evidence we can
rely on. We are hoping against hope that they do find the wreckage of
the plane and the black box."
The
lawyer also said that even without flight MH370's wreckage, litigation
could be carried out based on the firm's investigation and information
about past similar aviation accidents.
"We’re
thinking it’s probably something wrong with the plane or the training
of the pilots," said Mateo, adding that they can't rule out hijacking or
other cause that led to the disappearance of the plane.
The
Asiana suit is still in court after the law firm sought to move the
case back to a state court. Boeing had previously moved the lawsuit to a
federal court, arguing that the flight’s path over water placed it in
federal maritime jurisdiction.
Boeing, Bloomberg said, declined to comment on the filing while Malaysia Airlines has yet to respond.
It
also reported that families of those on board the flight could receive
as much as US$175,000 (RM578,025) or more in compensation from Malaysia
Airlines under the 1999 Montreal Convention.
The
international treaty states that carriers have to pay damages for each
passenger killed or injured in an accident, even if the cause is not
known.
If
the airline was not able to show that the sole fault for the plane’s
loss lies with another party, such as the airplane’s maker or
terrorists, its liability under the treaty may be higher, the report
said.
It
said that claimants would have a better chance for seeking more
compensation if they found a way to sue in the US, where "awards and
settlements can be more generous than in the two Asian countries".
“The US is where people want to go,” a lawyer with a New York law firm Dorothea Capone told Bloomberg. – March 26, 2014.
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