Malaysia Air is being sued by a brother of an American man who died among the 239 passengers on flight MH370 last March 2014. The lawsuit was filed by the Thomas Wood on Jan. 12 in the US District Court of Washington DC.
Phillip Talmadge Wood, according to Bloomberg, was staying in Malaysia for a temporary work assignment for the International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) when he boarded the flight to Beijing.
The plaintiff is seeking $155,937 amount of damages, as the maximum allowed under the terms of the Montreal Convention. The amount may still increase, though, if Malaysia Air can prove as a fact that his brother’s death was caused by another reason besides the company’s negligence.
The Montreal Convention sets the conditions on how the affected parties from an aviation tragedy are to be compensated.
Per The Australian, the legal move comes despite “legal complexities” which includes the unknown cause of disappearance, the ruins of the aircraft yet to be found, and the ongoing rumors that the captain hijacked the plane himself.
If the theory about the captain is proven to be true, the families of the victims may no longer sue Boeing, the US aircraft manufacturer, if evidence surfaced that the plane had flaws on its overall structure.
Philip Wood was survived by his sons Nicholas and Christopher, according to the court filing.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the piece of suspected plane wreckage found in Thailand was “unlikely” to be linked to flight MH370.
The publication learned that villagers of southern Thailand found a large piece of curved metal last Saturday. However, aviation experts and local officials say that it doesn’t belong to the Malaysian carrier.
"Villagers found the wreckage, measuring about 2 meters wide and 3 meters long (6.6 by 9.8 feet)," a head official of Pak Phanang district said in a statement.
It’s yet to be determined whether other relatives of the victims will board this legal battle against the Malaysian carrier.
