Malaysia Airlines and Boeing are facing a potential multi-million-dollar litigation process over flight MH370, which vanished off radars more than a fortnight ago, according to a US law firm representing the families of passengers onboard the missing aircraft.

Chicago-based Ribbeck Law Chartered filed a petition for discovery on 24 March in Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, demanding the airline and aircraft manufacturer provide records on the missing jet’s maintenance and crew that may have caused the disaster.

The petition by the law firm, representing the father of one of the passengers, demands 26 different kinds of information such as possible defects in the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft or its component parts, the airline’s crew training, and information about its cargo.

"Further defendants may be named in the coming few days, including designers and manufacturers of the aircraft components that would have failed."

It is also seeking the information on identity of the company or individual who had last inspected the fuselage and on who provided maintenance.

Lead Ribbeck lawyer in the case Monica Kelly was quoted by Reuters as saying: "We believe that both defendants named are responsible for the disaster of flight MH370."

Further defendants may be named in the coming few days, including designers and manufacturers of the aircraft components that would have failed, Kelly noted.

The development comes after the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that flight MH370 ended in the south Indian Ocean with no likely survivors, citing a new satellite data analysis.

Meanwhile, the search operations for the remains of the Malaysian jet have resumed over the Indian Ocean off Western Australia after weather conditions improved.

Defence Technology