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Coincidence? No. 7 making the rounds on social media

As families and authorities the world over try to make sense of the tragedy involving Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, focus has shifted to the coincidence over the number seven.

This was revealed in the general information and flight log of the aircraft available on Airfleets.net, where MH17 was to have been on its inaugural flight on July 17, 1997 and crashed on July 17, 2014.

That puts the aircraft, which bears the registration number 9M-MRD, in service for 17 years to the day, and with the most obvious seven appearing in the flight number itself.

This “coincidence” is already making its round on social media, with Twitter user@swamy39 posting: "Persistent Numbers 17 & 7: Flight MH17, Boeing 777, first flew on 17.7.97. It crashed 17 years later, 17.7.14. Coincidence surely!"

Meanwhile, Shafiq Hj Arshad had this to say about the “coincidence” on his Twitter handle @ShafiqHanafi: "Yes there is nothing over numbers, maybe just a coincidence, mh370 take off on 7/3 while mh17 take off on 17/7 #MH17 al-fatihah"

Twitter user Qal@sheq4larmanda posted: "M17 was shot down on the 17 of July M17 is a boeing 777 plane So many 7s during the crash. Something must have been planned."

Meanwhile, other conspiracy theories are being expressed by Twitter users, where pokokKelapaBerduri, using Twitter handle @ainJamungi said: "Dulu mse kes #MH370, Syria kene bedil tubi2. And now, #MH17 case, land invasion on Gaza. I don't think its a coincidence. #PrayForGaza”.

A Twitter user going by the handle@MsSophieAhmed also tweeted about an alleged coincidence with the situation in Gaza in her post: “Malaysian Airline tragedy a distraction to the current situation in Gaza.. Coincidence?! I think not. #MH17 #GazaUnderAttack.”

Meanwhile, Malaysia Airlines said in a statement today that the B777-200 aircraft had a clean maintenance record and that it was last checked earlier this month on July 11.

The next servicing was due on August 27.

The aircraft had recorded 75,322 hours with a total of 11,434 cycles and the communication system on the aircraft was functioning normally, the airline's media relations manager Khairunnisak Dzun Nurin said.

"The maintenance was conducted at Malaysia Airlines’ hangar at KLIA.

"The aircraft had a clean bill of health," the manager said.

MAS flight MH17 crashed yesterday over eastern Ukraine killing all 298 people on board, with officials in Kiev and Moscow both denying involvement in the shooting down of the jet. – July 18, 2014.