Survivors of flight MH370 demand renewed search
On March 8, 2014, a plane with 239 people on board suddenly disappears from radar. One of the largest search operations in the history of aviation begins. In 2018, the measures are discontinued without success. In China, relatives are now calling for the search to be resumed in a new area.
Dozens of relatives of Chinese passengers from flight MH370 have called for a new search for the Malaysian plane that has been missing for almost ten years. At the start of compensation hearings before a court in the Chinese capital Beijing, they called for new talks in an open letter to the Malaysian head of government Anwar Ibrahim.
They are prepared to "invest their own money or cooperate with experts and companies". The relatives are therefore proposing to cover all the costs of the search operation if it yields nothing. The same method was used in 2018 in an agreement between Malaysia and the private US company Ocean Infinity. The company had then searched for the missing plane in a new area of around 25,000 square meters - without success.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 had suddenly disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014 on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. No trace of the wreckage was found during an underwater search of an area covering 120,000 square kilometers. At the beginning of 2017, Australia, Malaysia and China then suspended the largest search operation in the history of aviation.
Compensation and the search for the truth
The fate of flight MH370 remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history. Most of the passengers were Chinese. According to Chinese state television CCTV, more than 40 families of missing people have now filed a lawsuit against Malaysia Airlines, Boeing as the manufacturer of the aircraft and Rolls-Royce as the manufacturer of the engines, as well as the insurance company Allianz. They are demanding compensation of between 10 and 80 million yuan (1.3 to 10.2 million euros) as well as 30 to 40 million yuan to compensate for their non-material damage.
However, the plaintiffs are not only seeking compensation, one of their lawyers, Zhang Qihuai, told CCTV. Rather, they were still searching for the truth about the mysterious disappearance of the plane. It was initially unclear to what extent the Chinese court was responsible for enforcing the compensation claims. Malaysia's Ministry of Transport did not want to comment on the hearings when asked by AFP. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Beijing attached "great importance" to "following up" on the case. He hoped that "all parties will remain in close contact".
Source: www.ntv.de
