KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21 ― Malaysia Airlines (MAS) may not have been responsible for the crash of Flight MH17 but legal experts say the financially-strapped flag carrier may find itself slapped with a negligence lawsuit for allowing its plane to fly over Ukraine’s troubled region on July 17.

According to Australian news portal news.com.au, this is despite confirmed findings that the ill-fated jetliner had been cruising in an unrestricted and safe airspace at the time. In fact, three other commercial jets were in the same airspace when MH17 was supposedly taken down with a surface-to-air missile fired by rebels in eastern Ukraine.

The report said the Dutch Safety Board ― which is probing the crash of the commercial aircraft ― is still investigating the Malaysian flag carrier’s decision to fly over Ukraine.

Flight MH17, which was en-route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, was believed to have been shot down while cruising at 33,000 feet over conflict-ridden Donetsk on July 17.

All 298 passengers and crew died in the crash.

Local aviation authorities have asserted that the airspace was not enlisted as a no-fly zone as three other countries’ commercial jets were in the conflicted skies at the time of the apparent missile strike on MH17 although US-based carriers and Australia’s Qantas had avoided flying over the zone long before.

The Australian news website said today that MAS were to face a negligence suit, the ailing carrier would have to empty out its pockets and fork out more than the US$54.5 million (RM176.25 million) compensation it is expected to pay for the 298 lives lost on MH17.

Quoting an unnamed spokesman from MAS, the report added that nation carrier does not rule out future lawsuits as the payment to families “would not be conditional on the cessation of legal action”.

Under an international aviation treaty, the next-of-kin of the plane’s 298 passengers are allowed to seek up to US$183,000 (RM591,822) each without proving any fault on MAS.

According to the Montreal Convention, the airline can be “held liable” for the crash even if the investigators rule out “pilot error or mechanical issues”, stated the news report.

“The payment being offered is not conditional on the families waiving any rights to claim further compensation from the airline and that the families remain free to take whatever further legal action they deem appropriate,” said the spokesman, as quoted by news.com.au. 

MAS has already offered an advance of US$50,000 (RM161,700 ) ― a portion of the final payment ― to the victims’ families.

The news site added that the airline is expected to take up to a year to finalise the compensation payments, notwithstanding any possible legal action.

This is the second major aviation disaster to strike MAS, nearly five months after flight MH370 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur mysteriously disappeared off radars in the pre-dawn hours of March 8.

Experts have since determined that the plane has ended up somewhere in the vast region of the south Indian Ocean, but no proof has been discovered of the whereabouts of the plane or its 239 passengers and crew.