A report on Businessweek said that a US law firm is seeking for the records of the Malaysian Airline Flight 370's maintenance and crew from Malaysian Airline System Bhd and Boeing Co in what seemed to be the start of a barrage of litigation over the plane's disappearance.
Partner Monica Kelly in the Chicago-based firm Ribbeck Law Chartered said in a statement, "We believe that both defendants named are responsible for the disaster of Flight MH370."
On March 8, the airplane that carried 239 passengers vanished from radar after their scheduled takeoff in Kuala Lumpur enroute to Beijing. On March 24, the government of Malaysia has declared that based on satellite data, the last position of the missing plane is in the southern Indian Ocean, southwest of Perth, Australia, and that the airplane had perished, included all the people on board the plane.
Businessweek said that the petition was filed on behalf of a complainant, whose nephew, Firman Chandra Siregar, boarded the ill-fated plane. Ribbeck Law Chartered has hinted that the petition could result to a potential lawsuit against the airline or the airplane maker, or could be against both.
Kelly added in the statement that the law firm is looking into data on the possible design and manufacturing defects of the plane that could have contributed to the plane's eventual demise. Businessweek said the estate of Siregar is looking into the airline crew's training and cargo information of the flight. In a press conference held today in Malaysia, Kelly said her firm will be pursuing to obtain $1 million from the potential defendants for Sireger's estate, and that the firm will not be filing the potential lawsuit in Malaysia or China.
Businessweek talked to Ribbeck spokesman Mervin Mateo, who said about the petition over the phone, "That's usually how we begin the process. We have our own experts doing their investigation. If the wreckage is not found, there would be little or no evidence we can rely on. We are hoping against hope that they do find the wreckage of the plane and the black box."
