Families seek damages for MH370 deaths

Families of four Queenslanders who were aboard missing flight MH370 are suing the operator for more than $400,000.

Rodney and Mary Burrows were holidaying with their long-time friends Bob and Cathy Lawton when they boarded the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight in Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing, in March 2014.

Relatives and executors of their estates are seeking the equivalent of $A420,000 from Malaysian Airline System Berhad (MASB) as well as "further damages", interest and costs, according to documents filed in the Federal Court.

Statements of claim filed in the twin cases allege children of the two couples have "suffered varying degrees of nervous shock and consequential economic loss" as a result of their parents' deaths.

They allege MASB "failed to prevent the flight from being operated in a manner that caused it to crash", killing 239 people in March 2014.

The cases are expected to return to the Federal Court in Sydney in August.