New lawsuits have been filed against Boeing and Malaysia Airlines over the disappearance of the Boeing 777 MH370 in March 2014.

Only small pieces of debris from the plane have been found since it disappeared in March 2014. It was carrying 239 people including six Australians.

The lawsuit, filed against Boeing in US District Court in South Carolina, says an electrical fire could have caused the Boeing 777 plane to depressurise, incapacitated the crew, caused the transponder to fail and led to the plane flying undetected until it ran out of fuel and crashed.

The suit argues a long list of manufacturing defects in the missing airliner had been produced before the aircraft disappeared.

Already, the Australian Defence Science and Technology report officially acknowledged the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight suffered a sudden electrical failure before its disappearance.

This backs the popular “zombie plane” theory, whereby the missing plane’s avionic systems are ravaged, rendering the flight crew helpless, and the aircraft continued flying on autopilot until it ran out of fuel.

The MH370 search area, where investigators found nothing. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

“The defects caused and/or allowed a massive and cascading sequence of electrical failures on-board the lost plane which disabled vital systems, including the lost plane’s ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) and Mode S Transponder,” the lawsuit alleges.

Such failures would have prevented the crew from properly flying the aircraft or communicating with the ground, it says.

“Boeing elected to equip the lost plane with these ineffective ELTs (Emergency Locator Transmitters) and ULBs (Underwater Locator Beacons) despite the presence of other readily available and reasonable alternative technologies that would have allowed the lost plane, the FDR (Flight Data Recorder), and the CVR (Cockpit Voice Recorder) to be tracked in real-time anywhere in the world, especially in cases of crashes, disruption of communications and other losses,” it reads

The suit was filed by Gregory Keith who is a special administrator for families who lost loved ones on the flight. It names 44 victims as plaintiffs.

Boeing says it doesn’t comment on pending lawsuits.

Children write messages of hope for passengers of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Picture: ReutersSource:Supplied

Meanwhile, the Chinese next-of-kin of 15 passengers on Tuesday filed papers announcing their intention to sue Malaysian Airline System BHD (MAS), the parent company of Malaysia Airlines.

Malaysian media reports the families argue the disappearance of MH370 cannot have happened without culpable negligence by MAS, the Department of Civil Aviation, the Royal Malaysian Air Force and the Malaysian Government.

The writ seeks damages for ‘wrongful acts’ which have caused the defendants losses in financial support, family members and has produced irreparable psychological harm.

A girl has her face painted during the Day of Remembrance for MH370 event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Saturday, March 4, 2017. Picture: APSource:AP

FAMILIES SEEK TO RAISE $20 MILLION

The families of those on board missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 also have launched efforts to raise at least $US15 million ($A19.75 million) to fund a private search as they mark the third anniversary of the plane’s disappearance.

The nearly three-year search in the southern Indian Ocean was suspended on January 17 with no trace of the plane, which disappeared March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

Jacquita Gomes, whose husband was a flight attendant on the plane, said at the weekend families have no choice but to take matters into their own hands. She said Flight 370 “should not go down in history books as a mystery”.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said a final report on the plane’s disappearance will be released this year.