“There is a precedent for a modern jetliner to fall from the sky while ‘in the cruise’ and lie hidden for months, according to CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest. On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447 was en route from Rio De Janeiro to Paris when communications ended suddenly from the Airbus A330, another state-of-the-art aircraft. It took four searches over the course of nearly two years to locate the bulk of flight 447’s wreckage and the majority of the 228 bodies in a mountain range deep under the ocean. It took even longer to find the cause of the disaster. In May 2011, the aircraft’s voice recorder and flight data recorder were recovered from the ocean floor after an extensive search using miniature submersible vehicles. It was not until July 2012 that investigators published their report, which blamed the crash on a series of errors by the pilots and a failure to react effectively to technical problems.

The missing Malaysia Airlines plane had suffered damage in the past, airline CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said Sunday. The aircraft had a clipped wing tip, but Boeing repaired it, and the jet was safe to fly, Yahya said. The National Transportation Safety Board announced late Saturday that a team of its investigators was en route to Asia to help with the investigation, the agency said. If all those on board Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 are found to have died, it will rank as the deadliest airline disaster since November 12, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587 crashed into a New York neighborhood, killing all 260 people on board and five more on the ground.” (Source: https://www.cnn.com/2014/03/09/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/).

We at Pilot Law extend our sympathies and condolences to the victims of this crash. We have represented several clients in this region, have a lot of experience in handling cases such as this, and will continue to independently investigate the possible causes of this terrible accident.  As always, we are available for a free consultation with anyone who may wish to pursue claims on their behalf or on behalf of a loved one.