In the incident of the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 flight on March 8, 2014, among the 153 Chinese passengers on board, 75 families filed compensation lawsuits against Malaysia Airlines, but more than half of these cases have already been settled. On the 8th, Beijing’s Chaoyang District People’s Court delivered its first-instance verdict for the remaining unresolved 8 cases, requiring Malaysia Airlines to compensate the families of the 8 involved passengers with more than 2.9 million RMB (1.6864 million Ringgit) each.
According to a Jiemian News report, after the disappearance of MH370, out of the 153 missing Chinese passengers, between 2016 and the present, the families of 75 passengers successively filed lawsuits, demanding compensation from Malaysia Airlines, Malaysia International Airlines, and others, as well as the establishment of a search-and-rescue fund, forming a total of 78 cases.
According to the report, after verification by the court, at 1:22 a.m. on March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines MH370 lost contact during flight; on January 19, 2015, the Malaysian government issued a statement officially declaring the MH370 flight lost with all 239 passengers and crew presumed dead.
The report noted that during the trial process, with Chaoyang Court hosting multiple rounds of mediation, among the aforementioned 78 cases, the families in 47 cases and the defendants (Malaysia Airlines, Malaysia Airlines International) reached mutual agreement and withdrew their lawsuits after settlement.
According to the report, Chaoyang District People’s Court handed down first-instance verdicts for 8 cases this time, involving 8 passengers, all of whom have been lawfully declared dead. In accordance with the Montreal Convention and relevant Chinese legal provisions, the court ordered Malaysia Airlines and Malaysia Airlines International in each case to compensate the families for death compensation, funeral expenses, mental anguish, and other losses and costs, totalling more than 2.9 million RMB per case.
As for the remaining 23 cases, the report stated that either the families have not yet applied for, or have not completed, declaration of death for the passengers; those cases are still in the court trial process.
On March 8, 2014, the Malaysia Airlines MH370 flight, a Boeing 777-200 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, mysteriously disappeared during flight, becoming one of the greatest mysteries in contemporary aviation history. After years of investigation, the whereabouts of the missing flight remain unknown. Among the 239 passengers and crew, as many as 153 were Chinese nationals. (News source: Central News Agency)