“They (JACC) know how to treat us as people,” said Karla McMaster from Brisbane who lost her parents, Rodney and Mary, when MH370 disappeared with 239 people on board. “The experience (with Malaysia Airlines) has been frustrating and emotionally draining.”
McMaster, along with the adult children of Rodney and Mary Burrows and Bob and Cathy Lawton, claim they were peppered with “ridiculous” questions from lawyers engaged by the Malaysian carrier ever since they filed a suit in March this year. They are seeking damages from Malaysia Airlines for financial loss and nervous shock.
The litigants fear further torment in a long drawn-out legal battle as they wrestle with the thought that they may never know what happened to their loved ones. The futile search for the missing airline is drawing to a close in the 7th Arc covering 120,000 sq km of the southern Indian Ocean, off southeast Australia. Only 15,000 sq km, virtually a patch, remains to be covered.
The lawyers for Malaysia Airlines, amidst the dreadful possibility that MH370 may never be found, want litigants to state “what caused the aircraft to crash, where it crashed and who was monitoring, tracking and supervising the plane.”
McMasters denied the case was about money. It was about holding the airline accountable for failing to keep track of one of its aircraft, she added. “We want them to recognise that their actions, or lack of action, is why we are in this position now.”
“Money won’t change anything or bring our loved ones back. It will hopefully allow us to move forward and have some type of closure if they are held accountable.”
Malaysia Airlines has promised that “fair and reasonable compensation would be paid to the families of all MH370 passengers.”
“We have stated this publicly on many occasions and we reiterate that the airline will honour any commitments that we have made,” said Malaysia Airlines in a statement. “The well-being of the family members is always our main priority.”
The reality, said McMaster, was very much different.
“From day one, they haven’t wanted to help try and make this easier for us. It seems to be a pattern of theirs,” she said. “They just seem to want to put the families last. They don’t really want to have to deal with us.”
She asked how the family members of the victims were expected to prepare themselves. “It feels very final.”
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a Boeing 777, disappeared on March 8, 2014 during a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. MH370-related debris, at least nine so far including five confirmed, have been found washed ashore along the western Indian Ocean. Two independent studies suggest that the missing aircraft may be in the northern Indian Ocean.
India has ruled out the aircraft being in the Bay of Bengal.
Eye witness reports place the aircraft in the waters of the Maldives, south of Sri Lanka. These eyewitness reports speak of a large aircraft, in the colours of Malaysia Airlines, going down in flames in the vicinity.
Investigators, led by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), said the debris finds were consistent with the drift pattern experienced in the search area.
Malaysia, China and Australia have ruled out the search for MH370 continuing, beyond the 7th Arc, if no new evidence turns up to point to the exact location of the missing aircraft. Six of the passengers on board MH370 were Australian nationals and permanent residents. Most of the passengers were from China.