Pretrial meeting held over missing MH370

A pretrial conference in the high-profile litigation related to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared on its way to Beijing in 2014, was focused mainly on exchanges of evidence and clarifying appeals and opinions of the parties and ended on Tuesday, a lawyer involved in the litigation said.

The two-day conference was held at Beijing Railway Transport Court, which said 37 cases related to the missing flight are now ready to be heard.

Flight MH370 disappeared from radar on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. The aircraft was carrying 239 people, including 154 Chinese passengers.

Families of passengers are seeking compensation ranging from 10 million to 74.9 million yuan ($1.5 million to $11.3 million) from five defendants: Malaysia Airlines Systems, which operated the flight and was subsequently renamed Malaysia Airlines Berhad; aircraft maker Boeing; engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce; and German insurance company Allianz.

Pretrial conferences are held to understand the demands and opinions of litigants, often in highly complex cases with large amounts of evidence and many litigants, in accordance with Civil Procedure Law. It indicates that a trial is near.

Zhang Qihuai, a lawyer representing 14 litigants, said a date for hearings in the case is still pending.

He said attorneys for the plaintiffs and defendants clarified opinions and exchanged evidence during the meeting. The compensation requested is to cover medical fees, expenses and mental anguish.

However, what people want most is to know the reason for the incident and what actually happened on the flight, hoping the defendants will give a specific written explanation, Zhang said.

About 60 of the 154 families have accepted the compensation that has been offered, he said, adding that the compensation is based on one-on-one confidential agreements and the amount is not public.

“The court originally arranged five days for the conference but it was finished in two days,” Zhang said. He took 14 boxes of evidence to the court.

Flight MH370 has not been found. Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation declared in January 2015 that the disappearance was an accident and all 227 passengers and 12 crew members are presumed dead.