KUALA LUMPUR: The beleaguered Malaysia Airlines (MAS) was today given a two-week extension to file their defence over a lawsuit filed by two boys, who lost their father in the mysterious disappearance of Flight MH370 nearly nine months ago.
Malaysian High Court deputy registrar K Pavani ordered all defendants to file their defence before December 15.
Pavani has set January 12 for the matter to be heard before a trial judge, said the childrens' lead counsel Datuk Dr Arunan Selvaraj, the Star reported. Selvaraj said they were now in the midst of identifying witnesses.
"We have a lot of witnesses. We got very good leads. We are filtering who will be called as our witnesses," he said.
He said that foreign experts have e-mailed to them offering to help in the case.
Arunan said they want answers to various queries over the missing plane.
"The plane is said to have ended at the Indian Ocean, so what is the conclusion?
"We are interested to know what transpired when the plane went missing on March 8," he said.
In the suit, the plaintiffs have also named the civil aviation director-general, the immigration director-general, the air force chief and the Government as defendants.
The two boys, aged 13 and 11, had on October 31, filed the civil claim through their mother Ng Pearl Ming, seeking damages for mental distress, emotional pain and the loss of support following the disappearance of their father.
They have claimed that the MAS had breached the "flight agreement" when the plane failed to land at Beijing at 6.30am (local time) on March 8.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, Malaysia's government launched a probe but failed to provide any result so far.
Government believes the flight diverted to the far southern Indian Ocean but no trace has been found despite an extensive search involving several countries.
Country's air force was also criticised after top brass acknowledged military radar had tracked the flight but took no action, saying it was not considered a security threat.
The beleaguered Malaysia Airlines was hammered by the loss of another Flight MH17 which apparently shot down over Ukraine in July, killing all the 298 people on board.