KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 — A US-based law firm engaged by the some families of the crew from Flight MH370 has denied instructing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) to end caregiver services to the group, after the national carrier said it did so at the behest of “foreign lawyers”.
Monica R. Kelly, an attorney at the Chicago-based Ribbeck Law Chartered, said the firm was also not the one that asked the airline to cease direct contact with the families.
“Please be advised that at no time did Ribbeck Law Chartered contact Malaysia Airlines to stop providing information regarding the search for the missing MH370 plane or to stop providing any other kind of assistance to our clients,” Kelly said in a brief statement sent via email to local media outlets.
MAS previously said that the “foreign lawyers” engaged by families had ordered the carrier to end all direct communication with their clients, following news the airlines instructed the caregivers assigned to the families of 12 crew members on the Boeing 777-200ER jetliner to stop all communications.
The airline said that it has been in contact with families without legal representation via its Family Support Centre (FSC), and continues to furnish them with status updates on the search for MH370 from the Malaysian government and the Australia-based Joint Action Coordinating Centre (JACC).
“MAS would like to reiterate that it will continue to offer the same assistance to families of all crew member but communications with families represented by foreign lawyers will be through their appointed lawyers as they have directed,” it added.
In a press conference on Sunday, wife of MH370 in-flight supervisor Patrick Gomes, Jacquita Gonzales and several other spouses of the MH370 crew claimed that MAS had conveyed this in an official email sent on Friday, informing the families to direct all future correspondences through their legal advisers.
Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radars with 239 passengers and crew on March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
No physical trace of the aircraft has been found in what has become largest international search mission the world has seen in the history of modern aviation disasters.
