On March 8, 2014 at 12:42 a.m. MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur and turned toward Beijing, climbing to its assigned cruising altitude of 35,000 feet at 1:01 am. On board, were 12 crew members and 227 passengers, including five children. At 1:30 am Malaysian military and civilian radar began tracking the plane as it turned around and then flew southwest over the Malay Peninsula and then northwest over the Strait of Malacca. At 2:22 am Malaysian military radar lost contact with the plane over the Andaman Sea.
