Flight MH370 Update: Passengers' Next-Of-Kin Settle Lawsuits With Malaysia Airlines

Malaysia Airlines, the company responsible for the still-missing Flight 370, recently settled several lawsuits relating to its mysterious disappearance. Attorneys announced Monday that four lawsuits filed by the relatives of MH370 victims had been handled out of court, just about three years after the Boeing 777 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, Free Malaysia Today reported.

They would not reveal the amount of money Malaysia Airlines paid to the families, though the outlet consulted an expert who estimated each family likely got about $147,000.

"Damages were paid in line with the Montreal Convention," lawyer Americk Sidhu told Free Malaysia Today, referencing a 1999 international treaty that outlines compensation requirements for air accidents.

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A number of lawsuits were filed worldwide after MH370 and the 239 people on board disappeared on March 8, 2014. The plane was thought to have crashed, but because answers have remained scarce — a recently concluded formal search of the Indian Ocean turned up no debris — people have disagreed on where to place the blame.

For example, a group of next-of-kin of 44 passengers sued Boeing in South Carolina earlier this month alleging that seven separate issues with the plane could have affected MH370's crew and the vehicle itself, NBC News reported.

Read: Was There An Extra Person On MH370 When It Went Down?

"The defects caused and/or allowed a massive and cascading sequence of electrical failures onboard the lost plane which disabled vital systems ... making it impossible for the crew to navigate the plane or for the plane to communicate with the ground stations leaving the aircraft to fly without the ability to communicate or control the aircraft until the plane ran out of fuel," attorneys wrote at the time.

However, an analysis of that lawsuit out Monday from law firm Smith Amundsen suggested it could get thrown out because of a lack of debris from MH370. "Without any physical evidence or factual basis for what actually happened on March 8, 2014, the plaintiffs face an uphill battle on their claims," the report read.