A 10-year-old boy's fears about being involved in a crash tragically came true when he boarded Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 along with his elder brother on July 17, CNN reported. His mother now wishes she had taken her youngest son's jitters about the flight more seriously.
Miguel Calehr died alongside his older brother Shaka, 19, when the plane got shot down while flying above eastern Ukraine, claiming the lives of 298 passengers from 11 different countries, last Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The pair was traveling to the Indonesian island of Bali for a fun-filled holiday with their grandmother.
Fortunately, their 16-year-old brother, Mika, was forced to take a seat on a later plane after the MH17 flight got fully booked.
Miguel told his mother, Samira Calehr, that he was nervous just hours before the flight was to depart from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. "After entering the passport [line], he came back to me and said 'Mama, I love you. I'm happy to see Oma [Grandma], but I'm going to miss you,'" Samira told CNN. Then, she said, he asked her, "'What happens when the plane will crash?'
"I said, 'Come on, don't be silly, you've been traveling already so many times. Everything's going to be OK.'" It was the sort of pre-flight fear many travelers will be familiar with, brushed off by a casual remark parents are used to making. But the single mom now regrets not paying more attention to her son's concerns. "If I could just turn back time. I didn't listen to him. I don't know, I have no words to say..."
Samira's brother Harun told CNN his nephew Mika was being "very brave" -- like his mother and grandmother.
"It comes in waves," he explained. "One minute they're completely distraught and inconsolable, and the other minute they're smiling and reminiscing and talking about the fun things that the boys did: the good things, the fun times, the memories."
The boys' grandmother, Yasmine Calehr, said the family was heartbroken: "Everybody is crying, everybody is losing something that belonged to them, but we feel like we have lost ourselves as well."
The family is currently focused on making sure that the boys' remains are repatriated to the Netherlands, where they can be given a proper farewell, Harun said. "As devastating as this process has been, we would like to have a grave, something to put into a grave... some remains or possibly the bodies intact to come home," he said.
Meanwhile, Mika said that even though he lost his "best friends," the bond he shares with his deceased brothers will go on beyond the grave, according to CNN. "It feels like they're already one with me now," he said. "They're my best friends, they're my brothers, and I feel like they're going to watch over me forever."
