A court in Beijing will soon open hearings for those who have lost their family members on board of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which disappeared in 2014, becoming a renewed effort and the latest development in China for the sensational case.
With defendant being Malaysian airliners, airplane makers or insurance companies, the relatives of those who disappeared with the mysterious flight might obtain compensation although that is not what they mostly want.
Jiang Hui, a representative of the relatives, said on Friday that nearly ten years after the accident, many family members in China, including him, received the first formal court notice. The hearing, dealing a lawsuit between the family members and several companies including Malaysia Airlines, Boeing and others, will be held from November 27 to December 6 at the People’s Court of Chaoyang District, Beijing, according to a report by the Southern Metropolis Daily.
This time, about 40 family members will have their cases heard by the court, Jiang said.
“Our main demands are, first of all, that the defendant will resume psychological assistance to the families of the missing on that flight as soon as possible and restore the liaison agency with the families; second, according to the ‘Special Drawing Rights’ under the Montreal Convention, priority should be paying family members,” Jiang said, expressing hopes that via the court hearing, family members will get the support they deserve.
In addition, Jiang hoped that in the final judgment, perpetrators and those responsible will be required to apologize, set up a search fund, and find the missing MH370 aircraft and passengers on it.
Zhang Qihuai, a lawyer who specializes in aviation case, will continue to represent the families of missing passengers in China.
Although this court session is about the same incident, each passenger is an individual case, so there will be separate hearings. In addition, family members’ largest request is still to find the passengers. For them, money is not the most important thing, Zhang said, according to Xinhuanghe, an online news outlet.
It is difficult for the family members to defend their rights since the incident involved multiple international factors and the situation was relatively complex. Moreover, it has been almost 10 years since the flight vanished, Zhang said. Until now, it is still unclear who is responsible, why contact is lost, and the specific location where the plane is also unclear.
A Boeing 777 component, also known as a trunnion door, was found in the possession of a Madagascan fisherman, becoming the first physical evidence suggesting one of the pilots on the MH370 flight purposefully tried to destroy and sink the plane, the Sky News reported last year.
In 2018, a detailed report on the disappearance of flight MH370, released by Malaysian International Civil Aviation Organization Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team, failed to determine the cause behind the mishap and left many questions unanswered due to lack of evidence.
In 2014, a total of 239 people took the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, which vanished soon after take-off. More than 150 of the passengers onboard were Chinese nationals.
In the past decade, many families of missing Chinese passengers have not given up on pushing search efforts and seeking justice through legal channels.
In 2016, 36 cases were successfully registered at the Beijing Rail Transportation Court.
(Global Times)
