MH370 Update: Malaysia Airlines Forced To Turn Over Documents Related To Missing Plane Investigation

The next-of-kin of the victims on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 have finally notched a victory. An appeals court upheld Monday a previous legal order forcing the airline company to give the late passengers' relatives a cache of documents related to MH370, the Malay Mail Online reported.

Malaysia Airlines had requested a set of documents about the missing plane remain secret after a judge ruled in September that the airline, the state department of civil aviation, the government and the Royal Malaysian Air Force — all named in a lawsuit filed by the relatives — had to turn them over. But on Monday, appeals Judge Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat shot the airline down, saying there was "no compelling or substantive reason to disturb the [previous] order."

The evidence in question included 37 pages of investigators' notes, reports and internal communications about MH370, according to Free Malaysia Today.

Monday's legal news came as the anniversary of MH370's disappearance approached. The Boeing 777, which had 239 people on board traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, mysteriously vanished in March 2014. An exhaustive search of a portion of the Indian Ocean revealed no debris and was recently halted, frustrating families who argued they still didn't have answers about what happened to their loved ones.

Seventy-six of the relatives sued last year on the ground that Malaysia Airlines was negligent with not only the flight itself but also the search afterward. The group of relatives, which included 66 people from China, eight from India and two from the United States, was seeking damages.

The judge Monday also ruled that Malaysia Airlines had to pay 10,000 Malaysian ringgits, or about $2,250, in costs as proceedings moved forward.

"This lawsuit deserves a day in court, and all the families deserve a fair trial," lawyer N. Ganesan told Free Malaysia Today last year.