KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 ― The first of an expected torrent of lawsuits on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is already taking shape in the United States but some Malaysian relatives consider the move premature.

The absence of the plane and the 239 people on board has not stopped an American law firm involved from touting plans to represent “more than half” the families of those on the doomed flight in a lawsuit against the carrier and Boeing Co, the maker of the plane used.

But despite dangled compensation, Malaysian families contacted by The Malay Mail Online were less than receptive to the move.

Kong Chin Wah, whose wife’s niece Ch’ng Mei Ling was a passenger on the doomed MH370 flight, says that he and Ch’ng’s brothers refused even to entertain the thought that the 33-year-old may be dead without physical evidence of a crash.

“We just hope that a miracle will happen,” Kong told The Malay Mail Online today.

“There must be at least some solid proof to show that the plane crashed in the sea. Then we’ll accept it. If they just say ‘ended’, we don’t accept it,” added the 49-year-old.

On Monday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced unexpectedly that analysis of available satellite data showed the Boeing 777-200ER jetliner had “ended somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean.”

A multinational search for the wreckage is now converged on a remote area in the southern Indian Ocean, but no evidence of the plane beyond indistinct satellite images has yet been found.

Chicago-based firm Ribbeck Law told The Malay Mail Online that it currently has “several” clients in the lawsuit over the MH370 disaster and expects to represent the families of more than half of the 227 passengers on board the flight, but declined to reveal the nationalities of their clients.

But given the angry scenes in Beijing, China following the Malaysia’s decision to “pronounce” all 239 passengers ― 153 of whom are Chinese ― dead, it is expected that the country will form the bulk of the litigants.

Response among the relatives of Malaysian passengers has been more subdued.

Ronnie Liu, whose close friend Stanley Wong was on the plane, said that the 52-year-old’s family members have yet to be approached by Ribbeck Law, but stressed that they were still ambivalent about the lawsuit against Boeing and MAS.

“They’re not saying yes, not saying no,” Liu told The Malay Mail Online.

Ribbeck Law is representing Indonesian Januari Siregar, whose nephew Firman Chandra Siregar was a passenger on the plane and the first to file legal action over the missing plane.

When asked how much the families are planning to sue MAS and the aircraft manufacturer Boeing for, Ribbeck Law spokesman Mervin Mateo said: “I do not have an exact number now, but in cases that we had filed in the past, we were able to get millions of dollars for our clients”.

The Reuters news agency yesterday reported the American law firm as saying that it suspected mechanical failure caused the plane crash.

“Our theory of the case is that there was a failure of the equipment in the cockpit that may have caused a fire that rendered the crew unconscious, or perhaps because of the defects in the fuselage, which had been reported before, there was some loss in the cabin pressure that also made the pilot and co-pilot unconscious," Monica Kelly, head of Global Aviation Litigation at Ribbeck Law, was quoted as saying.

She added that Boeing would be the focus of the suit, though both Boeing and MAS were named in the petition for information filed at the Illinois state court in Chicago on Tuesday.

Mateo told The Malay Mail Online that the information requested from Boeing and MAS includes data on possible defects in the plane or its component parts; the plane’s maintenance, fire alarm systems and emergency oxygen generators; the crew’s safety training; as well as MAS’ security practices and physical and psychological evaluations of the crew.

Selamat Omar, whose 29-year-old son Mohd Khairul Amri Selamat was one of the 38 Malaysian passengers on board the ill-fated flight, however, seemed more inclined towards joining the lawsuit.

“If the Chicago firm invites us, then we’ll join. But it depends on how strong their case is,” Selamat told The Malay Mail Online.