Columbia, South Carolina: A lawsuit filed in the US suggests a series of catastrophic electrical and other failures may have led to the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean.

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. A $200million international search for the missing plane was called off in January.

A piece of debris which may be part of the missing MH370 was found in Wartburg, South Africa, last year. Credit:AP

The lawsuit, filed on Friday against Boeing in the US District Court in South Carolina, says an electrical fire could have caused the 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 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.