- The compensation will cover funeral expenses and emotional damage to the families.
- The search for the plane will continue at the end of December.
A Beijing court announced on Monday that it had ordered Malaysia Airlines to pay compensation to the families of eight passengers on flight MH370. The move came more than ten years after the plane disappeared. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
The Chaoyang District People’s Court said in a statement that 47 other lawsuits were dropped after the families settled out of court with Malaysia Airlines and its international subsidiary Malaysia Airlines International. The damages will cover funeral expenses, emotional distress and other losses, with each family receiving more than $410,000, according to the court.
A Boeing 777 with 239 people on board disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014, during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Despite the most extensive search in the history of aviation, the plane has not yet been found. Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese, with the rest made up of Indonesians, Australians, Indians, Americans, Dutch and French nationals.
Of the original 78 lawsuits filed by families after the plane disappeared, 23 are still pending, a Beijing court said. The families of these passengers “either have not yet requested to be declared dead, or have not yet completed the declaration process,” the court said. Eight passengers, whose families received compensation from the court, were declared dead under the law.
The court’s announcement came days after Malaysian authorities said that the search for the plane will continue at the end of December, which was welcomed by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the relatives of the victims.
