A Beijing court ordered Malaysian Airlines to pay 2.9 million yuan ($410,000) each to the families of the eight missing Chinese passengers who travelled in the MH370, which vanished from air traffic radar on 8 March 2014.
The disappearance of MH370 is considered to be the biggest mystery in the aviation sector to date.
MH370 was to reach Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on that fateful day.
11 years later, the Beijing court has expressed that the compensation to the grieving families is not only for the death of their close ones, but also for funeral expenses, and damages that the incident has caused to the families, including emotional distress.
23 cases of missing passengers stand pending in the court, and families of 47 other passengers settled in agreements with Malaysia Airlines and withdrew their cases. 12 Malaysian crew and 227 passengers were on board the plane. Notably, most of them were Chinese citizens.
Last Wednesday, the Malaysian transport ministry said it would resume the search operation over a new 15,000 sq km seabed through Ocean Infinity, a marine robotics company based in the UK and the US, from December 30, for 55 days, with intermittent operations.
Significantly, the agreement is based on a 'no-find, no-fee' contract. Ocean Infinity will be paid 70 million dollars only if the wreckage is found.
Early this year, the seabed search operation commenced but was halted in April owing to non-conducive weather conditions.
The many possibilities
Ever since the disappearance of the Boeing 777 aeroplane, 39 minutes after it departed from Kuala Lumpur, many possibilities on how it was disconnected from the radar are doing the rounds.
Every speculation fails not to haunt the families of the missing passengers; a few kindle hope, while a few kindle dejection.
Conspiracy theories range from hijacking to cabin depressurisation and even power failure or purposeful diversion. There was no distress call at all. “Good night, Malaysian Three Seven Zero" was the last information that the pilot had passed on.
No ransom demands were made, nor any information about technical glitches was recorded. There was no harsh weather as well, fanning many more speculations.
However, in 2018, the Malaysian government officially concluded that the plane was 'manually turned around in mid-air' and that 'unlawful interference by a third party' could not be ruled out.
Meanwhile, the theories that the pilot and first officer were on a suicide mission to bring down the plane were dismissed.
With the revival of search operations, if the mystery is solved once and for all, bringing closure to the anticipation of the grieving families is all that is expected.
(With inputs from AP)