Joint Agency Coordination Centre of contact for information about the search for media and families of Flight 370 passengers. On 8 March 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China with 239 persons aboard; a search in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand was promptly initiated near the aircraft's last voice contact with air traffic control and final contact with secondary radar (the type of radar used by air traffic control). A week after the disappearance, Malaysia announced that military radar determined that the aircraft had traveled west across the Malay Peninsula after being lost
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 officially declared Flight 370 an accident with no survivors, a move that would allow compensation claims to be made. The first lawsuit related to the disappearance was filed in October 2014—before Flight 370 was declared an accident—on behalf of two Malaysian boys whose father was a passenger, for negligence in failing to contact the aircraft soon after it was lost and for breach of contract for failing to bring the passenger to his destination. Additional lawsuits against Malaysia Airlines have been filed in China and Malaysia. Malaysia Airlines offered "ex gratia" condolence payments soon after the disappearance. In China, families