A newlywed couple from Australia narrowly escaped tragedy by changing their travel plans at the last minute of not flying on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, ABC News reported. The flight was shot down on Thursday while flying above eastern Ukraine, claiming the lives of 298 passengers from 11 different countries, including Karlijn Keijzer, a Dutch national at Indiana University.
Simone La Posta and Juan Jovel were booked to fly on MH17 for the return trip from their honeymoon, but decided to fly a day earlier. "We are feeling lucky but at the same time our hearts bleed for these families that are expecting their loved ones to come back," Jovel told ABC News.
The couple is part of a small group of travelers who were scheduled to fly on Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, but for one reason or another changed their plans.
According to ABC News, Barry and Izzy Sim, along with their baby son, were also scheduled to fly on MH17 but had to change flights due to a shortage of seats. He described the feeling of learning about the fate of MH17 as "just shock." "You get this sick feeling in the pit of your stomach," he said. "So yes, just... we started getting butterflies. Your heartbeat starts going."
Dutch cyclist Maarten de Jonge was another passenger who was lucky enough to have missed taking the flight. But his remarkable story speaks of not one, but two chances of escaping death on a Malaysia Airlines. Not only was de Jonge scheduled to fly on Malaysia flight MH17, he was also scheduled to fly on Flight 370, which went missing in March.
As the world tries to cope with the tragic loss of almost 298 people in the alleged downing of a Malaysian Airliner MH17 plane over eastern Ukraine Thursday, questions have also started to be raised on why the airlines company persisted in flying over a conflict-zone airspace, which had been abandoned by many other Asian carriers months ago.
