A US-based law firm that specialises in aviation law is expected to represent families of more than half of the passengers on board the missing Malaysian Airlines flight in a lawsuit against the operator and Boeing Co, manufacturer of the aircraft.
Ribbeck Law has filed a petition claiming the plane crashed due to mechanical failure on behalf of Dr Januari Siregar who lost his 25-year-old son in the MH370 crash.
Now, families from China, Malaysia and Indonesia have joined his call for justice.
The petition is meant to secure evidence of possible design and manufacturing defects that may have contributed to the disaster, Reuters reported the law firm as saying.
“Our theory of the case is that there was a failure of the equipment in the cockpit that may have caused a fire that rendered the crew unconscious, or perhaps because of the defects in the fuselage which had been reported before there was some loss in the cabin pressure that also made the pilot and co-pilot unconscious,” Monica Kelly, head of Global Ribbeck Law,said.
Kelly added: “That plane was actually a ghost plane for several hours until it ran out of fuel.”
"We believe that both defendants named are responsible for the disaster of flight MH370," Kelly said.
She revealed that the parties had 30 days to reply to the petition, after which the firm would file a multi-million-dollar lawsuit on behalf of the families against those who are deemed responsible.
"We expect to represent more than 50% of the families of passengers who were on board that flight," she added.
"The families have accepted that the plane has crashed and they are ready to find out the real reason why this happened and this action is going to provide that information for them.
"We will prove that it was a mechanical failure of the aircraft design that caused the plane to crash."
The families are facing further frustration Thursday as search aircraft were recalled to Perth due to poor weather conditions, which are expected to last 24 hours.
Before the weather deteriorated, crews were trying to find signs of the plane.
Thailand said Thursday satellite images show 300 objects floating in the ocean.