The High Court today ordered Malaysian Airlines System Bhd (MAS) and four others to file their statement of defence over a suit filed against them by two children of a passenger aboard the vanished MH370.

The boys, aged 13 and 11, filed the civil claim on October 31 through their mother Ng Pearl Ming, 38.

The plaintiffs had named MAS, the Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia (DCA) director-general, the Immigration Department of Malaysia director-general, the The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) chief and the Government as defendants.

High court deputy registrar K. Pavani today ordered all defendants to file their defence before December 15 and set January 12 for the matter to be heard before a trial judge.

Lead counsel Datuk Dr. Arunan Selvaraj said they are in the midst of identifying witnesses to appear in court. He said foreign experts have also offered to help in the case.

“Foreign experts had emailed us to offer their help in this case,” Aruna said, adding that they too want answers to the questions about the missing plane.

In the statement of claim, the boys said their father, Jee Jing Hang, 41 had entered into an agreement with MAS for safe passage when he paid the airfare for his flight on MH370, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.

MAS, named as first defendant, had breached the agreement when the plane failed to land in Beijing at 6.30am on March 8 as scheduled, they said.

Second defendant, DCA, was said to have failed in its responsibility to provide safe air traffic control service and negligent in taking necessary steps to communicate and track the missing plane on radar.

The plaintiffs also alleged that the Immigration Department had failed and neglected its duties in performing thorough checks on passengers and allowing some passengers to board MH370 using false identification.

RMAF, they claimed, had also failed to send planes immediately to identify an unscheduled flight which appeared on its radar system, which could have been MH370.

The boys are seeking for damages over the loss of support suffered by them as a result of the incident.

Flight MH370 was carrying 239 passengers including cabin crew en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it mysteriously vanished on March 8.