MH370: Govt hopes to strike out suit by passenger's sons

The Government of Malaysia will file an application to strike out a suit filed by two sons of a passenger on MAS Flight MH370 which has had to be traced since going missing on March 8 last year.

Senior Federal Counsel Kamal Azira Hassan told this to reporters after the case was mentioned in the chambers of Judge Datuk Rosnaini Saub.

"We have yet to file the application to strike out the suit but have informed the court on the matter," said Kamal Azira.

Kamal Azira said the court had set Feb 17 for case management. The government filed its defence statement last month.

The proceedings today was also attended by counsel Datuk Dr S. Arunan, representing the two brothers as plaintiffs.

On Oct 31, the two brothers aged 12 and 14 years through their mother, Ng Pearl Ming, 39, filed the suit and named Malaysian Airlines System Berhad (MAS), Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general, Immigration Department director-general, Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) chief and the Government of Malaysia as defendants.

In their statement of claim, the brothers alleged that their father, Jee Jing Hang, 41, a passenger of MH370 aircraft, had entered into a flight contract agreement with MAS on their flight from Kuala Lumpur at 12.41 midnight and was expected to land in Beijing at 6.30am on March 8.

The plaintiffs alleged that through the agreement, MAS as the first defendant should have taken all necessary steps to ensure the flight was safe but had breached the agreement when it failed to land in Beijing and there were no details on the last moments of the plane till today.

Apart from that, the plaintiffs also named the DCA director-general as the second defendant as the party responsible for air traffic control to ensure the flight was safe, but failed to take adequate measures to communicate and track the flight with radar.

The brothers also claimed that the Immigration Department had failed and was negligent in conducting detailed inspections on the aircraft's passengers who boarded the plane using forged identification.

They also alleged RMAF had failed and was negligent in scrambling a plane to identify an unscheduled aircraft appearing in RMAF's radar system (on March 8) which could have been the MH370 aircraft.

Both plantiffs, among others, are claiming compensation from all defendants on the loss of their father who was a businessman with a monthly income of RM16,865 and additional compensation for the suffering endured by them.

MH370 was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, when it disappeared from the radar screen about one hour after departing KL International Airport on the day of the incident.

Efforts to find the aircraft is still going on in the Indian Ocean.