This came about at a Federal Court Directions Hearing in Sydney yesterday, in relation to a case brought by the children of four MH370 passengers – Rod and Mary Burrows, and Bob and Cathy Lawton, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News reported.

The court listed the documents to be provided as follows:

• The most recent medical certificate held by each member of the flight crew, including both cockpit crew and cabin crew;
• The most recent pilots licence held by the crew;
• Any operational notes logs or records held by the airline in relation to the flight;
• Procedures for carrying dangerous goods;
• Procedures for loss of radio contact, flying over oceans, and what to do in the event of hijacking;
• The operations manual for the plane, including flight deck security; and
• The flight plan lodged by the captain with air traffic control.

Though these are considered routine information pertaining to any airline or flight, anything that sheds new light on the disappearance of flight MH370, still unsolved after more than 30 months, was considered most welcome.

The lawyer representing the families of the victims was surprised at the turnaround by MAS on this matter.

The lawyer, John Dawson, who is also an aviation specialist, said he had been hounding the airline for over a year for the release of the documents.

The case by the Burrows and Lawton families were considered the most advanced of all court actions against MAS and lead insurer, Allianz.

According to ABC, Allianz wants to cap any compensation offered to the families of Australian victims at A$250,000 (RM800,000).

The insurer had already paid each of the Australian victims’ families A$50,000 last year as per the Montreal Treaty on commercial aviation, but the families were asking for more.

They were now hoping the released documents would reveal some form of incompetency and failure on the part of the airline that could support their case.

This is why, ABC reported, it was still unclear why the airline and its insurer had suddenly decided to release the documents.

However, there is no guarantee the documents itself will be revealed to the public, as there was no certainty that the case would even reach the trial stage.

The hearings will resume in March next year, so this is a minor victory for now, in the families’ fight for greater compensation.

On March 8, 2014, MAS flight MH370 left the Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing, China, with 227 passengers and 12 flight and cabin crew.

However all communication was lost with MH370 somewhere over the South China Sea. Later it was learned that the plane had made a turnaround, flying back over the northern part of Peninsula Malaysia before heading south towards the Indian Ocean.

It is thought to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean, about 2,000km west of Perth, in Western Australia.

The search for any wreckage of the plane is ongoing, though some parts confirmed to be from the Boeing 777-200 aircraft have been found off the coast of Reunion Island, off Madagascar and in Mozambique, both on the south of the African continent.