Malaysia Airlines on Thursday officially described missing Flight MH370 as an “accident,” triggering ire from the family members of some passengers who were on board the ill-fated plane.
“There’s nothing new. The Malaysian authorities have been covering up the truth from the get-go, and they have no credibility to speak of. We are not accepting the conclusion,” Wen Wancheng, the family member of a passenger on board the airliner, told The Associated Press.
There’s legal reasons for why Malaysia Airlines deemed it an “accident” and not a terrorist attack or assigning criminality, notes Albert Goldson, head of Indo-Brazilian Associates LLC, a global firm that advises on security risk for firms engaged in overseas business.
If it were designated as “criminality or terrorism, then the investigation would shift to the politically unpalatable area culpability with respect to security,” he notes. “As a result, the subsequent lawsuits and insurance payouts would dwarf those of the accident insurance payouts.”
