US law firm launches legal action over MH370

A model of a Boeing 777 aircraft is displayed as representatives of US law firm Ribbeck Law Chartered International hold a media briefing in Kuala Lumpur. The firm said it has started "multi-million dollar" legal proceedings against Malaysia Airlines and Boeing over flight MH370. (AFP/Ed Jones)

KUALA LUMPUR: A US law firm said on Wednesday it has initiated what it called the first civil legal proceedings over the crash of flight MH370 and said it planned to pursue lawsuits seeking "millions of dollars" for aggrieved families.

Chicago-based Ribbeck Law Chartered International said it filed a court petition in the US state of Illinois targeting Malaysia Airlines and Boeing, blaming the two companies for the "disaster".

"We are going to be filing the lawsuits for millions of dollars per each passenger based on prior cases that we have done involving crashes like this one," the firm's head of aviation litigation, Monica Kelly, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

The development appeared to mark the start of what legal experts have warned could be a cascade of lawsuits by passengers' relatives livid over the unexplained disappearance of their loved ones.

The plane carried 239 passengers and crew.

Kelly said her firm was also talking to "several" other relatives in China and Malaysia about taking similar action on their behalf.

Ribbeck issued a statement earlier Wednesday saying it had filed a "petition of discovery" in Illinois requesting a court to order defendants to provide potential evidence and other information.

In particular, the documents being sought pertain to possible design or mechanical defects or conduct by the airline that may have led to the disaster, it said.

"We believe that both defendants named are responsible for the disaster of Flight MH370," the statement said.

The legal action was filed on behalf of Januari Siregar, an Indonesian lawyer and father of Firman Siregar, 25, who was on the flight.

"It is extremely important for the victims we represent that all responsible parties are brought to justice without exceptions," it said.

Boeing and Malaysia Airlines have 30 days to reply, Kelly told reporters, adding that a lawsuit could take years to conclude.

"(Families) want to have justice. They want to prevent accidents like this from happening again," Kelly said.

She said it was the first legal action over the disaster.

"Nobody has filed anything because I do not believe that anybody is representing any clients. And nobody has initiated a case either."

Ground contact with the Beijing-bound flight was lost somewhere over the Gulf of Thailand, shortly after it took off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, bound for Beijing.

Malaysia believes it was deliberately diverted and said Monday that satellite data indicates the plane crashed into the southern Indian Ocean, far from its original path.

But no wreckage has been found there despite several days of searching by a fleet of ships and planes from a number of countries and no other evidence has publicly emerged to indicate what caused the plane to divert.

Floyd Wisner, another US-based aviation crash attorney, said Malaysia Airlines' liability was "almost certain, no matter what the cause of the crash ultimately is determined to be".

"The fact that the wreckage has not yet been found does not have any real legal impact upon the families' claims against Malaysia Airlines," he told AFP.

However, other lawyers said lawsuits could be bogged down by the lack of evidence.

Many of the next-of-kin of MH370 passengers, particularly Chinese relatives, have been frustrated with the lack of information and angrily accuse the flag carrier and the Malaysian government of incompetence and withholding evidence.

Two-thirds of the 227 passengers were Chinese.

Kelly said her firm believed equipment failure caused a fire or sudden loss of pressure that rendered the pilots unconscious and the aircraft "a ghost plane" that flew for several hours until it ran out of fuel.

Malaysia Airlines said in a statement to AFP that it was aware of the court petition and that its lawyers had been "advised of this development", but declined further comment.

The national flag carrier has already paid $5,000 to next-of-kin, but they are entitled to up to about $176,000 under an international convention.

Ribbeck is currently representing 115 passengers of a Boeing 777 flight operated by South Korea's Asiana Airlines that crashed upon landing in San Francisco last year. Three people died.

The firm said it would also file additional court petitions against other parties that provided parts or components for the aircraft that may have been faulty.