Families of passengers aboard a Malaysia Airlines flight that famously vanished nearly a decade ago have called for a new investigation.
More than 40 Chinese relatives signed an open letter to Malaysia’s prime minister on Monday, saying it was time for a new hunt for the truth about Flight MH370, which disappeared on March 8, 2014, after taking off from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board.
The plane never arrived in China. Its disappearance triggered the largest search in aviation history, but after three years, almost no trace of the plane has been found, except for a few pieces of debris found along the coast of Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean.
Malaysian investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the plane was deliberately diverted off course. Other theories about the plane’s mysterious fate include mechanical failure or a hijacking attempt.
Search continues
The 40 relatives appealed for a new investigation as their lawsuit for compensation from aircraft manufacturer Boeing, engine maker Rolls Royce and insurance group Allianz was opened in a Chinese court, state broadcaster CCTV said.
In their letter to Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the families said they wanted to search for the plane on their own and were “willing to invest their own money or cooperate with capable individuals and companies”.
They called for “effective communication” with the Malaysian government to begin the search.
After the court hearing, many relatives choked back tears as they spoke of coming to terms with the tragedy 10 years on.
Bao Lanfang, whose son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter were all on the flight, said she cared more about answers than compensation.
“What I want is for Malaysia Airlines to tell me the truth. What happened to our loved ones?” the 71-year-old said. “What I want now is for them to resume the search and the investigation.”
Malaysia’s Transport Ministry and Malaysia Airlines both declined to comment on the hearing in the Chinese court, whose jurisdiction to enforce compensation against the defendants is unclear.
Each family sought civil compensation of between 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) and 80 million yuan ($11.2 million), as well as moral damages of 30 million yuan ($4.2 million) to 40 million yuan ($5.6 million), CCTV reported.
The families of more than 110 other passengers have already reached a settlement and received between 2.5 million and 3 million yuan, the broadcaster said.
The disappearance of MH370 has long fueled a number of theories, including that veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah had gone rogue.
In 2016, Malaysian officials revealed that the pilot had plotted a path over the Indian Ocean on a home flight simulator, but stressed that this did not prove that he deliberately crashed the plane.
A final report into the tragedy, released in 2018, pointed to air traffic control failures and said the plane’s course was changed manually.
But it failed to draw any firm conclusions, leaving relatives angry and disappointed.
